


Wi(II)

by orphan_account



Series: Wi(II) [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Boys In Love, BoyxBoy, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Friendship/Love, LGBTQ Character, M/M, MalexMale, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23475655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Sequel to 'see you on the other side'. An AU where Nico and Reyna have flouted the rules of the Underworld to find Will Solace. But as they do so, they encounter yet another Will Solace. Still, he's a little different, being a William, rather than a Will. However, Nico doesn't have time to play around. With Reyna's disappearance, Nico's mind can't just be focused on love and romance, though part of his mind will obviously be dedicated to that.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Will Solace
Series: Wi(II) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1688854
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi y'all I'm back from my hiatus. In my country, schools are shutting down for a month so I hope I will be more active! But then again, I still have to manage my art account on Insta (pls follow me at @papaya._.draws thanks) and there's still home-based learning stuff so yeah. Posting schedule won't be fixed though. I'm trying to refine the chapters so :]. I don't know if y'all were even waiting for this or not but anyway here it is. I missed being on this platform so much and a friend of mine found my account so I'm really wary of what I'm putting out there now (yeah thanks a lot). Well who cares. Love you all so much for reading this

_ "Everyone thought I'd forget." _

Nico sat on his bed, bringing his knees up under his chin.

_ "But I remembered." _

He rubbed his eyes in wonder. Not in curious wonder, but in dark, dark wonder. Reyna was still missing. He had been trying to find her for days without any bit of clue. He sighed.

_ "I remember. Everything." _

The cat nuzzled into Nico's bare chest, prompting him to change into some clothes of decency. Nico gave in, and patted Pollo on the head in his exhausted daze.

_ "I'm Nico." _

Pollo rubbed its head against his shin, dropping a pair of shoes at his feet. Nico stretched his lips into what could've been passed off as a tiny smile, and nodded.

_ "And I've been having the same dreams for the past few nights." _

Nico walked to the front door, and bent down to give Pollo a scratch behind the ears. A curtain of dark hair fell over his eyes, and down his back. It elicited a purr from the feline, as well as a lick on his palm.

_ "I would be encased in the same darkness." _

He closed the door behind him, and Pollo whined softly. He sighed, careful not to drop his bag as he tied up his hair.

_ "I would see the same trees, the same flowers, the same people." _

He entered the lift, keeping his head down. His fingers tingled slightly, and he hid them in his pockets. The lady beside him looked at him warily as black smoke curled gently around his hands. The lady's gaze lingered. Thank the gods his fallen lot of fringe could cover the heat from his cheeks.

_ "I would feel the same grass at my feet, and the same warm lips on mine." _

The doors opened, and he strolled slowly across the old marble tiles, his bag knocking against his shoulder. But it didn't quite make a difference all the same; the bag was empty anyway.

_ "The same feeling of being let go." _

He jogged forward a little. A sore aching feeling ate away at his stomach, and if anything, it was like tiny little hamsters chewing his intestines. He needed his income for the day, else he wanted to remain so small.

_ "Of being let down." _

There used to be school, which he was required to attend without fail everyday. His face always turned to a scowl when he so much as heard this word from a good ten feet away. And now, he did too frown in nothing but regret.

_ "There were always the occasional flashes of bright sunlight, sometimes the sounds of skates on ice." _

He looked forward, fringe obscuring his vision. Glancing at a male from the corner of his eye, he rolled his bag across the floor, saving the spot just as the other man tried to take 'his' place.

_ "The salty taste of sweat at my tongue, perhaps a hint of sweetness at its tip." _

The man cursed, and Nico feigned ignorance. What was the use of flaring up anyway? Words never came to him naturally anymore.

_ "Foggy pictures of pitch black darkness." _

Still, he smiled sweetly as the man left with a bitter look on his face. Yet his sweet smile earned him a pair of pitiful eyes. Being a suck up in this world always helped. Even if it was known as a cheater's way out. That was the thing about society; what they didn't know couldn't hurt them.

_ "And the horrible stench of abandonment." _

Nico paused for a second, and his stomach churned. Then he shook his head, clearing it of thoughts. He was so hungry. He must not have eaten in days.

With determination contorting itself onto his face, he swallowed the bile as it rose up his throat, his eyes showing everything just about ten times brighter.

He rested his hands on the keys. His bag was open, ready for any dirty money, or coins of sympathy. Nausea reared its ugly head once more, but Nico was insistent on continuing.

_ "I started playing because I loved the instrument, as i did with figure skating. But today, I only do that to feel something among the emptiness." _

God that was deep. It must have come from all the mental toil he had undergone. He let his head clear after exhausting himself from forcing out this piano. Also to get rid of thoughts. He blinked away the blotched vision and inhaled deeply.

And with a soft relaxation of his fingers, he began to play, opening his mouth slightly to sing the song he'd memorised while hunger beat away like drum sticks on a drum. The day had only just started.

_ "I'm Nico. And I remember." _

_ "Everything." _

…

02/02/2020

It's February the second of twenty twenty today.

Sounds like a lucky day to me. I hope something good

comes out of it.

William

Solace

Will awoke to find his professor leaning over him.

Will hit the side of his forehead with the base of his palm. The professor looked at him, and shook her head.

"Will. If you don't listen, how do you expect to get a good grade?" Her gaze was empty, and a little disappointed. Excuses that clawed themselves into his brain just dissolved at his tongue.

"I'll try, professor," Will muttered, staring at a foggy image of his professor. She made a little noise at the back of her throat.

She turned her heel, leaving a forced smile in his direction. Will drew out a long breath of air. He never seemed to be able to get a good rest. Ever.

He rested his head on his hands once more, almost drifting off to sleep again. Except this time, two hands slammed down on his table.

He groaned and looked up, coming face to face with his tanned deskmate.

"Aye Will! I'm gonna go to the club down the street later with Kayla. Exams are coming soon and the workload is not gonna leave us much time for fun." Will hummed softly to indicate he was still listening.

"Come with us?" Austin shrugged. Will dropped his head onto the desk and gave Austin a thumbs up sign. He could hear Austin heave a sigh of relief.

"Mm. Okay, will do." He mumbled into his elbow.

"Meet in ten minutes?" Will rolled his head over to the side, his blond hair parted just enough for him to see through.

He raised his eyebrows and looked to Austin, giving him a pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah," Will said, putting his weight on Austin's shoulder as he sat up. He stretched out his limbs as he did so. The professor looked at him, her eyebrows tilted downwards at the outside end.

Will put his homework and papers into his bag, and fitted it nicely on his shoulders. As he passed her, he gave his bag a little shake and a light pat.

She nodded, looking at him through her thin-framed glasses. But just before Will could say anything to assure her he would do his homework, Austin wrapped his hand around his neck, and rested his palm on his shoulder.

"You know, you could probably even find some...friends there." Kayla leaned in to say, and laughed, slapping Will's bag. Will took a second to bring his mind back to what he had been talking to them about earlier.

The club.

"Kayla!" Will gave her his best glare. She clamped her mouth shut.

"We're just saying," Austin squeezed his shoulder. "That, you know, you don't seem to like anyone."

Will shrugged Austin's hand off, but he just looped it through his. "And I don't! I don't see a problem with that."

"But-"

Austin came to an abrupt stop as Katie bounced over. "Oh you're going to that new club too?"

Before Will could even answer, Kayla nodded. Katie's eyes lit up. "Travis, Conner and I are going in five minutes. Wanna go together?"

"See what Will thinks." Austin said and looked to Will. Meanwhile, all he could do was watch this play out before his very eyes.

"Yeah i guess. The more the merrier." Will agreed. "And, it's free entry too on top of having extremely cheap drinks."

Kayla immediately released her grip on Will and ambled over to Katie's side.

Will could already see how the night was going to play out. Money on drinks taking up half his savings, homework left undone, same scolding tomorrow.

And at the end of it all? Still single. And definitely not going to mingle.

Illllllllllll

"Hey guys, are you here yet?" Will called in exasperation. He could be sleeping right now. He shook his wrist, and it flickered on to reveal it had been a whole twenty minutes since Austin asked him out.

"Here, Sol!" Austin called out from behind him, his bright and distracting golden hair hastily combed.

"Don't call me Sol," Will said. "Yes yes i know what my last name is, but no." He quickly added as Austin was about to say something.

Kayla moved the bridge of her sunglasses down so Will could see her.

"Kayla, what do you need the sung-you know what? Nevermind." She gave him a smug smile and pushed them back up to cover her eyes.

He waited a few seconds for them to saunter over til he decided he couldn't wait that long and ran to pull them along.

Katie looped her hand through Travis' and marched along with her flashy purple handbag. "Like the bag? Got it from Piper."

"She doesn't know does she?"

"Nope! You know...skill. Besides, the bag is just gorgeous! Piper has awesome taste." She ran a hand over the designer bag with her signature impish grin. Travis just looked at it as his head bounced up and down.

"We haven't even gone anywhere and yet y'all look drunk already." Will gave a resigned look. Austin shook his head slowly.

"Go with the flow, bro. This is why you love us." Will turned to look at Austin and agree but Austin wasn't even looking in his direction. Will rolled his eyes as they continued walking.

A sandy-haired boy walked past, and waved at him. Will waved back. He remembered him from when the principal introduced him as a new student.

He had to be very smart, Will remembered thinking. Few people were allowed into the school mid-term. Unless, of course, they happened to be exceptionally talented or intelligent.

Will also recalled feeling rather validated that this boy, was too, named Will. He was glad a studious schoolmate was named similar to him.

"Hey Will." Will(2) smiled. Will wondered how he could even compare to this Will(2). And how he remained so calm under the stress of the upcoming exams.

Will was the kind that didn't study but got relatively above average grades. Sure, if he studied, perhaps then he'd have reached his full potential but he had other things to do.

Kayla brought him back to reality with a slap on the back.

"Hey cuz, what's your ideal type?"

"Uh…" Will pondered, waving faintly at Will(2) as he walked away. "Hopefully shorter than me." Will sighed, not even giving a thought to the seemingly out of the blue question. Kayla raised an eyebrow.

"Jason wasn't shorter than you." Kayla noted with a finger to her chin. Will met her innocent gaze with a sad smile.

"No shit he wasn't." He nodded. "He was so goddamn tall." Will made a face. "There's a reason why we aren't together anymore."

Of course, Will wasn't together with Jason anymore NOT because Jason was taller than him, but Will just supposed it was an appropriate thing to say at the time. In hindsight, it was pretty uncalled for.

Kayla looked away awkwardly, her elf-like ears reddening like a tomato would when boiling. "Sorry. Forgot about...that." She vaguely gestured. Will just returned it with a shrug. It was clear she had forgotten that they were no longer together. Again.

He looked around. Everyone had fallen silent. Either they had all suddenly become aware of this uncomfortable tension or the Stolls had come up with something.

But his gut told him otherwise. He rubbed the side of his forehead, a wave of fatigue washing over him once more.

"Well, are we going or not?" Will put his hands on his hips, returning to his normal behaviour.

Everyone gave a stiff nod of the head as they continued to walk.

Illllllllllllll

Will squinted his eyes as a ray of purple light shone at him.

Dumb disco ball, he thought, as a dim green one attacked his eyes once more. Raising his hand to shield his vision, he looked to his left and right for his cousins. They stood by his side, their eyes reflecting the bright shiny lights of the club.

As Will waved his hand in front of them, it was like he had lifted whatever spell was on them. In a flash, they went right in.

"Don't go too far," Will called after them. "Last time you ditched me, remember? Hey!"

But they were already pushing and shoving each other, like they had gone back to their preteen years. Kayla took her place on the dance floor, dancing and moving her body to the beat as though no one was watching.

And Austin was...apologising to some girl for something Will at this point didn't even want to know.

With a sigh, he took a seat at one of the nearby tables, watching as other people danced around. Some looked hardly above ten, and others looked like they had five drinks too many.

Cool air blew through his shirt and shorts, giving him a chilly kiss on the cheek. He shifted uncomfortably in the equally cold seat, and pressed his numb lips together.

Then someone from behind tapped his shoulder. He turned around, expecting to see one of his two cousins.

But instead, he saw a teen, way too flushed to be just drunk.

"Hi," the boy said. "Mind if i sit here?"

Will looked around for his cousins. "Uhm…"

"There aren't any other seats." The boy sat down, and Will couldn't really tell him that he didn't quite catch what he said. He acted so sober Will wondered if he had even taken a sip of alcohol.

But, he did look pretty pale. Like something had sucked the life out of his skin. His red lips looked parched, and now Will was convinced he definitely hadn't drunk anything here.

In fact, the boy seemed as though he hadn't drunk anything for days.

"Do you need me to get a drink for you?"

"I'm good." The boy said, so soft Will had to lean in to hear. "Haven't eaten in like...forever." He added mumbling.

He saw the shock register on Will's face before Will could even try to hide it. A tiny, small smile lingered at his lips, and Will guessed he must have gotten that a lot. It wasn't even really so much what he said, but the sugary vanilla sweetness of his tone.

Will didn't even know why he was so shocked. The last time he had been this surprised was when he put a dollar in the vending machine and fifteen drinks came out.

Will opened his mouth to apologise for being so rude, but then suddenly, the lights above him flickered like a bulb short of power.

Except it really was out of power.

It wasn't even two seconds before all the lights were out. Everyone fell into complete and absolute darkness. People screamed from fright, some even laughed seconds later.

Will himself stifled a chuckle. Just something about this seemed so funny to him, and apparently a few others as well.

He quickly soon turned around to look for his cousins, and Katie and the Stolls, but a hand grabbed his.

He turned to see, and for some odd unexplainable reason, the boy was the only one he could see a vague outline of.

Vague outline.

But among that, his cheekbones glowed and his dark brown eyes glinted in the darkness.

Will had now never been so shocked. This could not at all compare to that incident with the vending machine. The boy literally lit up the room like a candle.

"I-"

"Follow me." The boy whispered, and jerked him forward towards him. Will made a little sound at the back of his throat.

The boy guided him through the many tightly packed bodies within the club, and ducked a few times whenever a huge arm swooped down in the darkness.

"Woah-" Will stopped abruptly when he was suddenly pulled to the right.

"You don't have to grip my arm so tight." Will tried to start a light conversation as they took another turn to the left now. His breath hitched in his throat.

The boy didn't reply, and instead, made a sharp turn to a direction Will at this point didn't even know whether it was left or right.

Then they finally stopped. The boy opened the door, the cool breeze of the early evening slapping him hard.

"Well," the boy said, a little breathless. "We're out now."

Will wanted to mention he still had his cousins and classmates in there, but he held his tongue.

So Will just gave a smile of gratitude. "Thanks for bringing me here, i guess." He noticed a trail of sweat running down the boy's neck.

"Um…" Now this took the boy by surprise. It was Will's turn to give the boy a sly smirk. "It wasn't anything, really."

Will still had like ten questions in his mind. How his cheekbones shone, how his eyes gleamed, how he managed to see in the pitch black darkness...His questions just played through in his head like an old film.

The two were silent for just about a minute, but Will decided he'd better do something.

"Wanna, like-i mean, if you aren't busy or...occupied...we could, i don't know. Have some food? Or just a drink if you don't have time?"

The boy considered it quietly. His expression was like he had something planned beforehand, but he nodded anyway.

"Sounds cool."

"Yeah sure. I'm getting kinda hungry now." Will turned to look back at the club once more. He could still hear some incessant laughter, and he hoped his cousins had the mind to know he had left.

"The coffeeshop down the road is pretty good." Will glanced to the boy for approval, and thankfully, he seemed neutral about it.

"Neat."

"Um. Let's go then." The boy started forward, but Will lingered a while, contemplating, then shook his head and hurried after. The boy was like a whole mile in front of him and Will had to jog to catch up.

"Oh yeah. What's your name?" The boy looked at him, his breath coming to a stop in his chest, and the vibrance in his brown eyes faded to grey. But his cheeks were ablaze. His throat tightened, as if pressured to find the answer that got lost on his tongue. And his eyes never once left the floor.

"Nico." He said in a small voice, smaller than even before. But in the cold chilly emptiness of the abandoned path, his voice echoed.

The echoes chilled him to his very bones, yet he was determined to get to know this bo-Nico, better.

"Oh." He replied, dragging it out to lessen the silence.

"What's yours?" Nico asked now, a little colour returning to his eyes.

"Uhm…" Will paused, caught off-guard. "I'm William. But you can just call me Will."

"William." Nico said fondly. "That's a nice name."

"You could just call me Will-"

"William." Nico cut him short. "William." He said once more, the hardness in his voice softened. Nico extended his hand.

"Nice to meet you." Will accepted the handshake, rather taken aback by the strength of his grip. It really did not match his stature.

"Sure, I guess." Will made a face, unsure if he was pronouncing it correctly. "Nico."

Nico just nodded, and Will could only assume he had said it right. Will felt around his pocket. The thought that perhaps he didn't have enough money really made him paranoid. The alley cats eyed him like a hawk.

"My treat?" Will offered, shifting away from one of the cats. Nico's brows furrowed, one side arching upwards.

"You sure?" Now this made Will really doubt his expenses. He felt his pocket once more, and sighed.

"Yep." His voice rose a little higher than he expected. Not that he expected his voice to rise at all. This literally reminded him of his first gig he had gotten in public.

He had tried to reach this high note he had planned but his voice obviously wasn't up to it that day and...he just changed the note last-minute.

Nico shrugged. "Thanks." Wow, Will thought. This definitely wasn't a particularly good conversationalist person. Not that Will was very good at it, just that Nico was...put in plain words, this boy would for sure not be the one to carry on conversations in this friendship.

"Right or left?" Nico said, slicing right through his thoughts.

"Left." Nico nodded and turned round the corner. He tilted his head towards the shop front in question. Will didn't give any form of reply, but ran forward to push the door open in welcome.

"This is the TeaJoint." He introduced. "It used to be run by Marie, but she has since passed, so her daughter Hazel took over."

"Ah." Nico said, appearing to be trying to recall some memory, but he shook his head. "I've never heard of her."

"Well...of course." Will said in doubt. He did not expect Nico to know who she was, but that Nico thought he maybe knew her gave him weird vibes. The alley cats screeched loudly in the background, closing the circle between them steadily

"Well anyway," Will brushed away the thought uncomfortably. "Let's go in."

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

_02/02/2020_

_It's still today. February second, twenty-twenty. This boy's pretty quiet, but I think he and I could make decently good friends._

_Also, his long hair is dope._

_William_

_Solace_

"A coffee for the two of you?" Hazel asked, a warm smile on her cherry lips, but her golden eyes faded.

"A tea for me." Nico said, and moved his hand around his jacket. Will couldn't help but let his stare linger a little longer at her.

Hazel had told Will that Marie had tried to turn over a new leaf to be a more loving mother, but her death came right after. Will knew it must have been hard on Hazel, even if she didn't say anything. From the shadowed look in her eyes to her small collarbones poking out from her skin.

And she was only thirteen.

"Will comes here pretty often, so i assume you would too."

Hazel scrambled around her apron and pressed into Nico's hand a name card. She turned to him with a smile. "Here's my number."

Then, turning to Will, she made a face and lightly hit him at the back of his head. "I'll go get your drinks." And she walked away, back into the kitchen.

"I shouldn't have accepted it." Nico flicked his forehead.

"Huh?"

"I don't even have a phone." Nico exhaled and folded his arms on the table, leaning forward to rest his head down. "What an idiot."

"I..." Will stared at him. He had not understood what Nico meant at first, and Nico seemed pretty bothered. Then it hit him like a truck.

"You don't have a phone?" Will gave him an incredulous look. He could've sworn he looked like a clown at the moment. He was told he showed his emotions really outwardly.

"I don't have that much money," He answered plainly. "Do I look very rich to you?"

Will sas speechless-he hadn't known of anyone who didn't have a phone. It was so foreign to him. Everyone in school had a phone. Austin had a phone. Kayla had a phone. Katie herself even had three-that is, if you counted those she swiped off the counters at second-hand stores.

"Then...how do you get by?" Will asked, incredulous. A whole train of thoughts rushed through his brain-the annoying kind with horns and bells everywhere. Will shook his head. "How do you go to school?"

"I…" Nico shifted in his seat, averting his eyes away from Will. He scratched the back of his ear uncomfortably. "I busk at a nearby mall. Singing...piano...yeah that."

The coffeeshop suddenly seemed so quiet, a faint buzz in Will's ear. Even the dumb train in his head disappeared. It was so oppressing it almost hurt his ears. _What? How could someone so young be busking? I don't mean to sound ignorant to myself, but...Nico busking? Who would've known?_

"I don't go to school either." Nico quickly added, waving his hands defensively. "I don't have the time or finances anyway." Maybe it was to clear up the situation, but it only served to make him more confused.

_Wow...full-time as well. No wonder he can hardly sustain himself. I'm guessing he rents somewhere, so rental costs would be maybe around two hundred bucks at least a month? I never knew busking was THAT profitable...or lack thereof._

He was still in a befuddled daze when Hazel came back with two drinks in her hand, and he immediately forced his attention to shift over to her. She put the drinks down on the table, condensation dripping off her wrist and fingers like pearls.

"Hazel, was it?" Nico asked. Will and Hazel nodded simultaneously. Nico drew in a huge ball of air.

"I can't call you." Nico said, and stopped. Will tilted his head, wondering why Nico didn't give any sort of explanation. He turned to Nico, who didn't say anything.

"He doesn't have a phone." Will explained. He felt a hard swift kick to the shin. He grimaced, and turned to Nico, who glared back at him.

Man, this boy was scary when he wanted to be. He sure seemed like a sweet boy, and probably was, until you triggered him.

"William!" He whisper-shouted. Hazel just appeared mildly amused.

"You don't have a phone?" Nico shook his head once more at the question, a faint embarrassed blush rising to his cheeks. Will looked away, afraid of what Nico may do if he looked him in the eye. But thankfully, he didn't say anything.

"Oh." She said softly. "Neither do i." His head snapped up. And Nico's did too. He certainly hadn't known about this before. After all, he did call Hazel quite often...

"You...don't?" Nico hesitated, then fingered the card in his pocket questioningly.

Hazel cracked a tiny smile and waved away the card dismissively. "That's the company's phone number. You know, a work phone."

_Ahhh...so that was what Hazel used to call him. Perhaps it was easier to buy a phone for work since then it didn't need as many functions._

Nico mouthed an "oh" and didn't say anything after. Will looked back to Nico, expecting some kind of follow-up to what he said. But nothing happened.

Nico coughed, clearing his throat awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable by the lack of conversation. "Um well, I'm going to go to the washroom." He got up. "If you'll excuse me."

Just as he was about to turn around the corner, Will caught sight of Nico tapping Hazel's shoulder and started a short conversation with her. Her eyes widened, then, face ashened, she nodded. She looked a little confused, and called Nico back for a moment and spoke a bit more. WIth every passing word Nico spoke, she seemed to become more and more pale.

Then Nico just awkwardly patted her head and walked into the washroom, leaving Hazel to walk away.

Will didn't comment, or stop him or anything, so he laid his head down on his crossed arms on the face of the table and shut his eyes. His breathing slowed, and he swam in his vision of nothing. It was like the table was lulling him to sleep.

Then something jolted him out of that relaxing nap.

"Hi," Nico said. "I'm back." He eased into his seat and took a sip of his tea. Hazel slipped back into the pantry to continue with her work.

"What'd you kick me for just now?" Will raised his eyebrow, remembering about the mentioned incident earlier, simultaneously trying to push back the memory of Nico and Hazel's conversation. Nico hardly batted an eyelid.

"Why'd you tell her I didn't have a phone?" Nico's eyes darted to the right where Hazel had been, then looked back to Will.

"How was i supposed to have known that you didn't want her to know that?" Will shrank back into his seat as Nico leaned forward. He had this underlying intimidating aura and Will didn't know if that scared him, or attracted him.

"You think it's everyone's business to know I'm not some rich kid like you?" Nico muttered just loud enough for Will to hear.

"Well…" Will trailed off. "It's my fault then." Nico scoffed, and rolled his eyes in his direction. Will's neck burned and the heat trailed down his back like a forest fire.

"You can say so." Nico lifted the cup to his lips for a little sip, then halfway, he stopped short. Putting his cup down, he drew his hand out from his pocket and unfolded an old faded photograph.

"Have you by any chance seen her?" Nico jabbed at the faint image of the girl in the picture. Her hand was around a younger Nico in the photo and the strong look on her face was definitely a distinctive feature of hers. But the way her arm was around Nico's shoulder was so tender and affectionate even Will's heart melted.

"Is she your cousin?" Will asked, his coarse fingers rubbing against the paper. It was so thin and all Will could think of was the word 'flaky'. Not exactly the best adjective but still.

"I...don't know." Will raised an eyebrow.

"Explain?" Will gave his coffee a stir and took a sip.

"Well...she could be my aunt, or niece, or...anything, really. I mean, everyone in this world must be related somehow." Will gave him a look, and Nico sheepishly turned away, red staining his ears.

"I mean, yeah, but," Will moved his hands towards Nico's to take a closer look at the picture, his fingers running over his skin for no more than a brief second. He shuddered slightly at the touch. "What did you know her as?"

"She was a really good friend of mine." He said wistfully, and his dark eyes lit up. Will grinned slyly.

"You like her?"

"Of course!" Nico said without thinking. "Wait, no. I mean, yeah, as a friend." Will gave Nico a suggestive look and a nudge, a small wave of relief flooding over him nonetheless. Nico flinched, nearly falling backwards as he did so. Will just laughed.

"Sure." He took a huge gulp of coffee, and smiled again, his heart pounded as he awaited the answer. "A _friend._ "

"Yes." Nico rolled his eyes and leant back against the chair. "A friend." He idly stirred his tea, deep in thought.

"What do you do in your free time?" He suddenly asked. He stopped stirring his tea, and looked at Will intently when he didn't immediately answer.

"I enjoy music I guess." Will shrugged. "I don't really know. I used to be in a band-"

"You're in a band?" Nico interrupted, slamming his hands down on the table in excitement. Will jumped back in his seat. Everyone in the coffee shop turned to look at him.

"I was." Will pointed out, and the smile on Nico's face just turned upside down. "But then things got complicated."

"Oh." Nico sat back in his seat, and crossed his legs under the table. Everyone who had been staring at them looked away. Nico made a vague motion with his hands. "How so?"

"We had school, and stuff, and so we don't really book gigs anywhere anymore. It used to be really fun and enjoyable but then maybe because of exams and workloads...whatever, it became somewhat like a chore." Will glanced at Nico to see if he was still listening, and surprisingly, he was. Most other people who he told this story to lost interest halfway and it never failed to make him disheartened. Yet here this new boy was, listening carefully to what he was saying despite only knowing Will for hardly an hour. It was new, to him, and it maybe even lifted his spirits a little.

"Yeah?" Nico finished up his tea as he looked to Will.

"Yeah. So then i…" Will paused, wondering if Nico was a person he could trust to keep this to himself. Not many people knew about this, outside the band of course. "I was actually the one who initiated we...disband? Is that the word?"

"I guess so." Nico shrugged. "I get the idea anyway. Carry on."

"So anyway, after that we stopped promoting and stuff and I just really lost touch with music," Will sighed. "It's not even that i don't enjoy it anymore. It's just like-"

"Like a childhood you can't return to." Nico finished, hugging his sling bag to himself. "Yeah i understand."

"...yeah." Will blinked, startled. Everytime he tried to explain it, he'd always stop short there. He never quite found the phrase to describe it.

Eyeing Nico, Will drank up the rest of his coffee. "Speak from experience?" Will lifted his chin up to take a long look at Nico, who had not said a thing.

"Is it a sensitive topic to you?" Nico kept quiet. Scarily quiet. Will thought Nico would suddenly have an outburst or something. But no. There was nothing. Not even a single sound left his lips. Will bit his lower lip, wondering if he had once again said the wrong thing. "If it is you don't have to answer it I'm sorry."

"I'd rather not talk about it," Nico gripped his bag tightly. Will nodded awkwardly.

"Right." Nico got up from his seat and straightened his shirt and jeans. "Shall we go?"

"Ok...wanna meet up again?" Will stood up and stretched. Nico tilted his head towards him, some hair falling from his ponytail to just cover his eye.

Right. Nico didn't have a phone.

"Oh. Yeah. So stupid of me." Will hit the side of his head. "Then how am i supposed to contact you in the future again?"

Nico fell back into silence, contemplating while Will stood there watching him. Something about the way Nico's long hair fell down his back intrigued him. He had never thought a boy could have long hair yet look so...boyish.

"Well i do go to the library near my home quite often when I'm not busking...or…" Nico's eyes looked to the bottom right corner. "...doing other stuff…whatever that may be..." he said so quietly Will could barely hear what he had said.

But Will didn't know how to ask him to repeat since he obviously hadn't intended for Will to hear that.

"Oh. So where's that?"

"Rio Library...it isn't too well-known but i guess if you search it up on your...phone thing, it'd show up."

Will immediately whipped out his phone and typed it in. "Called what again?"

"Rio Library. R-i-o, library." Nico repeated. Will obediently keyed in those letters and a single search result popped up.

Pointing to the one at the very top, Will asked, "This one?"

"Yeah." Nico tapped the screen and the image of the rundown library showed up.

"Not in too good of a condition either. I'm usually the only one there, so the librarians already know my name. But the best books are there." Nico explained hurriedly.

"Okay. Will do. When?"

"I think...any day? I'll probably be there tomorrow and the day following, around early afternoon to evening?"

"Ok. I'll foot the bill." Will took out his wallet and went straight to the counter. There was barely a queue, and Hazel was there, ready to attend to customers. Nico caught her eye, and nodded. Hazel stared back. Will wondered what they had talked about just now. It was like they had known each other for ages.

"Anyway William, I gotta go. See you...when i see you." Nico tapped Will on the shoulder, and gave him a two-finger wave. Will didn't even have the time to wave him goodbye before he was gone.

He just stared at the image of the boy as he swiftly left the coffeeshop and darted around the corner..and he was...gone.

Just like that.

Wow.

In what Will felt like hours, he finally reached the end of the line. It wasn't even a long queue-there were at most just three people, but maybe he was just bored.

"Hey Will," Hazel smiled warmly and Will handed over the money. Hazel punched some numbers into the cash register and the drawer popped open. She leaned forwards along the counter. "Nico seems like a nice boy."

Will shrugged. "I guess so." He sighed and received the loose change from her palm. "He's pretty quiet. I wonder what goes on in that head of his."

Hazel just chuckled. "What do you think is going on?" She patted him on the back, encouragingly. "It's hard to guess, i'll be honest."

"Sure is." Will muttered, his shoulders sagging. Frankly, Will was jealous Nico had a secret little talk with Hazel before him earlier by the toilets. Nico seemed like the reserved kind of boy, and that he picked Hazel to talk to in depth first was just...Will didn't even know how to put it into words.

Hazel's expression quickly turned worried. "Hey. Wanna talk?"

"I mean...yeah, but you aren't free at the moment so…" Will straightened his back. "I guess i'm just curious what he talked to you about...just now by the washroom."

At the mention of that, Hazel's hand flew to his mouth and clamped it shut. Will's eyes widened as he tried to move away. After a moment, Hazel released her hand.

"Don't talk about that...here." She insisted. "I'll call you later."

Will exhaled through his nose. "You don't have a phone."

"I have the company's phone number." She pointed out. Rubbing the back of her neck, she gave him a soft nudge. "Run along. I'll call you later, all right?"

"Ok fine sure." He agreed with great reluctance and made his way out of the coffeeshop. The soft jingle of the doorbell rang in his ears as he left, and a raindrop the size of a pearl fell on his nose.

He froze, and tilted his head towards the overcast sky. Dark clouds were quickly taking over the evening sky.

He only had time to mouth an "oh no" before he sprinted off towards the direction of the school dormitory, not even taking a second to look back.

Illlllllllllll

"Hey Will." Austin said, sinking into the couch of beanbags, his hair soaking wet from his shower. "So you ditched us this time in the club."

Will pulled his towel from around his neck to cover his bare chest. "Jesus Christ Austin! How'd you get in here?"

Austin gestured toward the door, not diverting his attention away from Will even for a second. "The door."

Will groaned and pulled a shirt over his neck, about to put it on when his head snapped towards Austin again. "Kayla isn't here...is she?"

"Uhm…" Will took this moment of distraction to hastily change into his shirt without Austin staring. It was always awkward, and while Will himself admitted he had a rather nice and enviable body, he did not at all appreciate people ogling at it.

"Uhm…" Austin hummed longer, leaving Will's suspicions to further increase. "Yes?"

The chair at Will's desk swivelled around, and there Kayla sat, her elfish face lit by Will's little lamp. "You ditched us."

Will made a face and hung his towel along his shoulder. "Well…" He searched for an argument, but it never came, as usual. "You ditched me the other time!" He claimed defensively.

Austin and Kayla locked eyes for a moment, and they both gave in finally. "True." They let.

"Oh yeah, anyway, i had this thought." Will spoke up at last after an extended period of silence. He paused, a little unsure, then looked up at the ceiling. "I was thinking about our band."

Austin sat still for a second, then climbed to the back of Will and started to give him a shoulder massage. "We stopped because we agreed it wasn't the best time to promote and stuff right? You don't have to feel guilty or-"

Will waved it away, and shrugged off Austin's hands. Rolling back his shoulders, he huffed.

"No no, it's not that." Will made his way to his bag and took out the homework from earlier that day, intending to finish it up as he spoke. He clicked his pen.

"So thing is…" He trailed off as he began to read the question on his worksheet. "During the blackout at the club today, i met a guy-"

"You met a guy?" Kayla rose from the chair and Will conveniently took a seat. "Name?"

"Nico." Will mumbled as he practically scratched out the answer on his worksheet. "Shit anyone has an ink refill?"

Either nobody heard him or they didn't want to answer. "His name itself sounds so...mysterious." Kayla announced. "Nico." She said, and something about the way she said it really ticked Will off.

"It's not Nico." He jabbed the pen at the paper forcefully. "It's _Nico._ " He put the pen down gently, but frustrated. "Dumb pen. Do you have an extra pen or something?" He looked from Austin to Kayla, then back to Austin with pleading eyes.

Not just his usual puppy eyes, but this time, with a sad desperate pair of eyes that literally screamed _can-you-stop-her-i-need-to-study-Austin-please-oh-God._ But Austin just put a hand around his shoulders.

"Stop worrying about your homework." Austin reached for Will's hand, absently feeling his pulse. "Think about life, and love...You know, romance?"

Will shuddered at Austin's warm touch. Then, turning around to frown at Austin, he brushed away his hand. "Look. Mom is already upset that i didn't do as well as she had expected...and i just want to do better for her okay?"

Austin flopped onto Will's bed, completely ignoring the displeased look on Will's face as he did so. "It's not necessarily because of _love_ that your grades just...fell, alright? It could be other stuff...like…" Austin thought for a moment, then turned to Kayla and kicked her shin discreetly.

Turning around, her glare for Austin quickly changed to one of thought. "Like...uhm...like…"

At the corner at his desk, Will just spun his pen and crossed his arms. "Yeah try to come up with a reason other than Grace." He snapped.

Kayla sat down on the ground in front of Will, and Will barely resisted the urge to just return to his work and use a pencil to write instead. She rested her head on her hand. "Look fine. It _was_ Jason, but you can't blame him!"

"I'm not blaming him!" Will half-yelled, his face growing almost too hot for a second. He dug his fingers into his scalp, and rested his elbows on the table. Ruffling his hair, he then slammed his fist on the desk. "Can you just-stop telling me to find love, and romance? I just want to be friends with Nico, okay? _Normal_ friends. Nothing more, nothing less."

Austin sat up in Will's bed. "I just…"

Will took a deep breath, and impatiently cut Austin off. "I know, i…" Will took a huge gulp of water from his glass and put it back down on the table, balancing precariously atop a stack of books. "I get it. Just...Mom has really high hopes for me, admitting me into this school even though i knew hardly anything about medicine-"

"Not true. You worked as a part-time nurse at a clinic once." Kayla swiftly pointed out. Will simply looked at her through drained eyes.

"Sure. So i did know a bit about medicine," He looked at Kayla, expecting her to say something in his defence again, but this time, wisely, she remained speechless. "But it was really expensive and...if i don't do well this year, i might get expelled."

"You can just ask that...what's his name? Phil? Bill?" Austin struggled to remember.

"Nico?" Will deadpanned, internally facepalming. "I swear, if you're-"

"No no, not that one." Austin waved that thought away. "That smart transfer student. Uhm...Phineas? Neil?"

"Will." Will splayed his fingers, covering his eye with his left hand. "Will whatever-his-last-name-is. It isn't that hard to remember. It's literally my name!"

Kayla allowed a faint smirk to cross her face. It was obvious that Will never managed to keep his anger for long. "It's kinda hard to associate your name with something somewhat intelligent."

"Quoted by you, _I worked as a part-time nurse at a clinic once._ " Will grinned, feeling the mounting heat in his throat subside. The buzz in his ear disappeared. "Some stuff _does_ come naturally to me you know?"

"Heh sure, but it comes naturally to us too." Austin breathed out, relieved by the lessened tension. The three of them laughed nervously, then Austin spoke.

"Oh you were saying...Nico?" And at that time Will could swear he had never turned around so quickly before. Then he remembered, Austin couldn't possibly know Nico. He blushed scarlet.

"Yeah he asked about our band.. and it got me thinking, i suppose." Will ran his hands through his hair, brushing through the knots. "Do you think, you know, we should start promoting again?"

Austin glanced at Kayla, who shrugged. "My skills may be a little rusty but it'll work. I mean, you're really the only one so uptight about exams."

Austin nodded hesitantly. "But, of course," he looked from Kayla back to Will. "If you aren't ready…"

"I'm ready." He said, so resolutely he already began to regret it, but his fingers itched to stroke his guitar. It had been so long, he didn't even know if it would even come back to him.

"Wanna have a run through tomorrow?" He suggested, pulling out a couple of his old files full of music scores. Brushing his fingers over the old sheets, he wondered if Nico knew how to play any instruments. He seemed so interested in the band, and just...music in general.

"Tomorrow?" Kayla eyed Will with surprise. "That's quick." She put her finger to her lip, eyebrows tying themselves together in contemplation. Finally, she shrugged. "But yeah, sure, I'll see if i even remember how to hold the drum sticks."

Will just looked to Austin now, his good natured smile on his face like always. "Will do. I'll get my guitar ready by tomorrow."

Will looked at the both of them gratefully. "Thanks guys. I'll look for gigs and concert venues then."

Austin and Kayla shared a look, and Kayla pulled on her coat, ready to return to her dorm room down the corridor. As she and Austin began to walk out of the door, she turned around.

"I'm really glad you're ready for us to promote and all again." She sighed with a smile. "I was beginning to think we'd never return to the world of music."

Austin smacked the back of her head. "Even if it wasn't today that Will was ready, there would've been a day he was." He shook his head. "Anyway, we'll get going."

Will sat on his bed, rolling his head over to face him. "It's about time. I've told you since ages ago not to come to my dorm room late at night."

Austin shrugged and put his hand around Kayla, pulling her out of the door, waved goodbye, and shut the door after him.

Now alone, the room that had felt so small now felt so vast and empty. Will lay on his face, breathing into his pillow. Today had been a long day; getting scolded by his teacher, meeting Nico, having weird spooky Hazel and now initiating the band start up again.

He rested his left hand on his bolster, and tilted his head slightly, beginning to scroll through social media. Thousands and thousands of posts flooded in every single day without fail, and as usual, nothing really caught his eye.

Well, except for a short, skinny, black-haired boy Will thought for a second was Nico.

He scrolled down just a bit more and was about to return to looking for platforms to perform at (and maybe complete his homework) when the phone suddenly began to buzz.

"Oh it's Hazel…" He muttered softly under his breath and accepted the incoming call. He forced himself to sit up in a proper position.

"Hi Will."

"Hey." Will waited for a moment, thinking maybe Hazel wanted to start first, but after a few awkward stretches of silence, Will began to talk. "So...about what Nico told you?"

Hazel laughed nervously on the other end. "So this might seem crazy to you, but he knows my mum?"

Will's eyebrows knitted together. "What?"

Hazel breathed out. "I know you aren't going to believe me...but he knows my mum." Will frowned.

"I mean...i did tell him her name," Will stuck his legs out, off the side of the bed. "And that she…" He coughed. "...wasn't here anymore."

He heard Hazel sigh resignedly on the other end. "You don't have to be so sensitive about it. I've long accepted she's dead anyway. And it's been like a year already."

Will pursed his lips, wondering if he'd said the wrong thing. He moved on. "Ok so...what's so crazy about it?"

"The thing is," she whispered into her phone. "He knows how she is. And everything about Marie!"

Will got up and went over to sit at his desk, putting Hazel on speaker mode so that he could write and hear at the same time. "What do you mean?"

Hazel tinkered with the gold anklet on her leg-Will could hear it. She used to do that quite often when she was jittery, anxious, or on edge. "I mean, he knows all about her! It's like...it's like he's spoken to her before."

Will sharpened his pencil. "Well...that can't be possible. He told me he'd never heard of her before, and i don't know about you, but i don't expect him to know her anyway."

"I know! That's why it's so weird."

Will blew off the excess shaved graphite off the tip of the pencil. "You reacted pretty roughly earlier. Are you alright now?"

Hazel laughed. "Yeah. I just had a rough day today. Pretty traumatic, i would say, in one day." Then she completely eradicated her light hearted tone. "You know, it's really weird. He doesn't even live particularly near here."

Will's interest was piqued by now, but he tried to keep calm. "Well...i guess it's kinda odd."

Hazel smacked her forehead. "That's what I've been trying to tell you." She closed the door on her end, and Will heard her lock it shut. Which was pretty weird since she lived alone. "And, he even knows the day she died!"

Will choked. "What the hell?"

"Yeah. Weird. But he's a nice guy. I guess he heard it from somewhere."

Will raised his eyebrows. "Right. Ok." He paused, then exhaled. "Oh you think i told him?"

"No-yes. I mean...maybe?" She said, flustered.

"I didn't, Hazel." He sighed. "I don't know. Maybe I let it slip when I was trying to make small talk with him."

Hazel was silent for a few moments. "Ok. I don't blame you or anything but it was really creepy alright."

"Yeah sorry." He apologised, a little embarrassed he had leaked something so private. He tried to change the topic.

"So...on another note, is it just me or is he a little mysterious?"

Hazel grunted, rather miffed about Will's carelessness. "Well yes i suppose...He is quite the attractive one though."

Will was pretty startled by this statement. Hazel never really discussed _boys_ with Will, despite being pretty good friends of a year now. It was almost like she abstained from giving compliments to anyone of the opposite gender. With the exception of Frank Zhang, that is.

It wasn't really a surprise though, and Will could definitely see what was so " _oh my god_ " about Frank to Hazel. From his warlike charm to his close-cropped hair, he was really quite manly. He had these really broad shoulders and a masculine built, and yet he was literally the softest human being on earth at heart. Will guessed that under all that muscle, he was just a kindhearted man.

"Nico...attractive?" Will tilted his head.

Hazel made a noise at the back of her throat. "You don't think so? I mean, I know he doesn't really look like Grace...but his lips are rather pretty."

"I was thinking his eyes, but sure his lips look fine too." Will said, not knowing what to make of Hazel's statement. Hazel just gave a sound of agreement, then stayed silent.

"Is that all you two spoke about today?" Will started up again.

"Yes Will. That's all." Hazel said exasperatedly, and Will knew he had been a little too pushy today. He decided to lay off a little, and took a mental step back. He looked at his half done assignment at his table.

"Also, Hazel. I can't do History so uh...do you by any chance know a thing or two about colonialism and imperialism?"


	3. Chapter 3

_03/02/2020_

_I think I've come to a conclusion. Number 1: Hazel is actually interested in guys. Number 2: Hazel has good taste in guys. Number 3: Hazel may or may not have convinced me into thinking that Nico is hotter than Jason._

_Nico's going to be at the library today. I guess I'll be there too._

_William_

_Solace_

"Wow, Will. I'm impressed by the quality of your History assignment. Keep up the good work." The teacher mused, glancing through his essay. Then, she went through it, as though having doubts whether or not he'd really done this himself. Will, on the other hand, couldn't care less about it. As a matter of fact, he just heaved a sigh of relief, and thanked the teacher for her compliment.

Smiling to herself and nodding at his homework, the teacher addressed the class, having convinced herself that he should've done it himself. "Alright class. You are dismissed."

Will shoved everything into his bag, with the exception of his music scores. Rubbing his eyes lethargically, he browsed through them. He'd been torn between his few top picks the previous night. Therefore, unable to choose, Will finally selected two of his favourites.

He made his way over to Austin's table, yawning as he did so.

"Hey Austin," Will called, putting down the two sheets on his desk. "Choose between the two."

Austin carefully zipped up his pencil case and slid it under his desk. "Huh?" He took a second to recall. "Oh yeah, we're starting the band up again right?"

Will pulled a chair from the side, and tapped Kayla's shoulder. "I can't decide between which one to pick."

Kayla took up one of them to examine it, her impish grin turning to one of utmost concentration. Reading the notes, she began to tap her fingers along to the scores. Her eyebrows drew together as she followed along to notes, and Austin started to do the same.

Then, the two swapped scores and did the entire thing again. Both their expressions were unreadable, but it wasn't like Will bothered to try to decipher what they were thinking. Instead, he lay his head down, and switched on his phone.

_One new message from "Hazel": How was it?_

Will smiled and typed back a response.

_The teacher was pleased. Thanks for helping._

Waiting for a reply that didn't come, he continued scrolling through pages and pages of possible concert venues. He still remembered some websites he often used to find places to perform. However, among those he saw now, most were over their budget, and some dates were too near to them to be ready by.

"I think i prefer this one." Austin placed a finger on one sheet. Kayla raised an eyebrow.

"I prefer the other one." They stared at each other, and Will shrugged.

"But I'm ok with either." Both of them suddenly said in unison. They looked at each other again, waiting for the other to make a decision. One that never came, anyway.

"Well," Will interjected. "We don't have to decide now. I think tonight, we can just. you know, get used to playing again. Maybe some simple songs or something."

Austin smiled with relief. "Thank the gods. I was so scared. I was the only one who wasn't used to playing and I was seriously so scared."

Kayla laughed too, as though a burden was lifted off her shoulders. "Like literally dude, I'm not even kidding. Yesterday you just randomly suggested that we start playing again and i actually went to mentally tortute myself into remembering which venue i left the drums at."

Will made a face. "It's not like I'd scold you or anything if y'all couldn't play."

At that, Austin and Kayla shared a look, then burst into laughter. "Well then obviously you don't know how serious you get when band practice starts."

Will looked doubtful, but it wasn't like he never noticed how tense his bandmates were whenever they played. It was just that he supposed he finally knew the reason behind it.

"Well you should've told me. I would've done something about it."

Kayla shrugged, not really convinced. Then, observing that nothing was being said, Kayla started to scoop up everything from her table and dumped it into her bag, much to Austin's disgust.

Unlike Kayla, Austin conscientiously put each worksheet into his file, then proceeded to patiently put it into his bag. Frowning at Kayla as she wedged her water bottle into a tiny space in her bag, Austin slid his into the hole at the side of his backpack.

Will just watched both of them in silence, waiting for them to be done so they could all leave.

"So...wanna head down to the new restaurant by the KFC around the bend?" Austin piped up. Will awkwardly lifted a finger into the air.

"Actually..." he looked apologetically towards the two of his friends. "I already decided to meet Nico at a library so..." Will widened his eyes and looked away.

Kayla sighed, but a smile played on her lips. "Ok then. Meeting up this evening for practice still though right?"

Will nodded, and with one last suspicious glance from Austin, Will walked out of his classroom, towards the back gate.

And he was on his way to go meet Nico.

Illlllllllllll

Except...maybe today wasn't the best day to stop by.

He peered at Nico from behind a bookshelf. Nico was surprisingly preoccupied with a book, and looked a little too intrigued for Will's liking. His eyes were fixated on every single word on the book, almost like he expected them to leap out and try to attack him. Will shifted his weight to his back leg, nearly toppling over backwards.

He sighed to himself. He really didn't want to go up to Nico and disturb him right now, and he regretted not just going up to Nico the moment he'd come.

His legs hurt from being in the same position for too long, and he desperately longed to stretch them out, but they'd have made a sound, and he knew that for sure. He grumbled to himself, telling himself that Nico was probably expecting him to turn up, and that even if he was a bother to him, he'd asked for it anyway.

But something inside Will restrained him, and Will gave in, allowing himself to wait a while more before getting up.

His gaze returned to Nico again, but this time, he was speechless. He watched Nico blink as he turned one of the last few pages of the book, and just one single tear slipped down from his dark brown eyes. Will interest was piqued, at last. His stare was riveted on Nico.

Will's eyes followed as that one lone tear as it glided down his cheek and paused at his chin, before it finally lost its grasp on Nico, and fell. Will wondered what kind of book would move such a boy to tears, and Will had to stop himself from going up to ask him.

_Stop it Will,_ he chided himself, _try to be a bit more observant can you? He's obviously not in a good state right now_. Will rolled his eyes at his own thoughts; after all, it was just one tear. Not like that chaotic flood of saltwater Will somehow always produced when he watched some sickly sweet yet sad romance movies.

Something at the back of his head must have slapped him back to reality, because the next time he looked up, he saw Nico close the book shut. Nico took a deep breath, shut his eyes, and when he opened them, he stood up to put the book back. Will jerked his head to the side to get a quick glance of the book cover.

_Pride or Passion, by Kayne Shune_

Okay Will wasn't going to lie. The title was rather cheesy, but who was he to say anything when he hadn't even read the book before? Besides, he couldn't say he read literary texts a lot. If he really read anything, it was usually something to do with music, sports, the arts...that kind of stuff.

Still, it was, for some reason or another, quite instinctive of him to want to borrow it. It would've been a lie to claim he had planned to come and read at all, but he guessed that based on how this library trip was coming along, he wasn't going to do anything much. Well at least tomorrow, if he came, which he probably would considering Nico was likely expecting him to show up, Nico would have gotten over it. Or, well...hopefully.

He shook his head to empty his brain from intrusive thoughts. Now, he now eyed Nico roll up to the top of his toes to return the book to the top shelf, as his hands stretched up to try and reach the shelf. Will stifled a muffled laugh behind his hand; Nico was really...small.

Will crawled over to the bookshelf separating him and Nico, and pushed aside a few aged books, while having to physically suppress the urge to sneeze. He blinked away the dust threatening to blind him.

Poking his head a little into the shelves, he watched Nico try to return it again, standing on the very tip of his toes. When that didn't work, Nico turned to jumping a little.

For just a brief second, Will saw his shirt lift. Just a little, just enough to catch a glimpse of his stomach. It appeared that did the trick; the book slid into the space on the shelf.

On the other hand, Will felt like his face was being set alight with fire. He turned away, scared he would start sweating so obviously Nico would notice him.

Gods damn it, Will was really so weird. It wasn't like he hadn't seen a guy's body before. In fact, he had so many times before in gym class, where there was that cheap alternative to personal changing areas schools liked to call a locker room.

Gods knew how much he hated those things. It was bad enough that he had to remove his shirt in front of people, but it was a whole other thing having people stare at him.

He knew his face must have still been flushed, but he really wanted to get the book. If anything, after all this, he hoped the book was worth all this wait, trouble and well, of course, embarrassment.

He touched his face curiously, wondering if he was still blushing. Then, waiting for the opportune time, he quietly slung his bag across his shoulder and scurried to the shelf and easily snatched the book out of the slot.

Keeping his head low, he walked briskly over to the counter and put the book down. Tapping his feet as he waited for the librarian to slowly scan the book, his eyes occasionally slipped to the side and found Nico's frame hunched over yet another book.

"Here you go, have a nic--" Will received the book and hastily cut her off.

"Thank you, you too." He rambled and hurriedly left the building. He could feel the lady's gaze lingering at his back, but he was really in too much of a rush to afford a second lost. After all, perhaps if he was even no more than a mere step too slow, Nico could have turned around and spotted him.

Will finally reached the bus stop, and he took a deep breath of fresh air. Now that he thought of it, he didn't even know what was so bad about Nico knowing he was there. Still, something about the way Nico moved and how he acted gave Will the feeling that he did not like to be found in a state of any kind of vulnerability, or...yeah.

He took a seat on the bench to wait for the bus to come. Glumly, he rested his chin on his palms. He still had his music scores to remember in his bag. And now he had added another burden on his shoulders; that is, to read finish Pride or Passion, or, as Will liked to shorten it, PAP.

Too lazy to remove his bag off his shoulders, he began to flip through the first few pages of the book.

To be extremely honest, Will found it rather boring. From what he read in the first few pages, he gathered that it was the story of a man. It wasn't really anything special; the first chapter mostly just talked about this guy named Phil and how apparently, his life was so sucky and all. Will felt almost disappointed he had gone through the trouble to get this book.

However, what he had anyway, was time. Flipping through a couple more pages, he finally came to one part.

_This is the end of the preface. Hope you enjoy the book! Signed, Kayne Shune._

Will was so done. What the heck? He had been reading the whole boring-ass preface for the past fifteen minutes? Oh for the love of--

Will took a deep breath, and rolled back his shoulders. He tilted his head to the left and right, sitting up so straight he felt his back make that weird popping sound. He sighed. He really hadn't read anything in way too long. It was truly about time he actually picked up a good book.

Well, at least now he knew Nico's taste in books wasn't necessarily horrible; mostly just Will's common sense was non-existent. He turned that darned preface page and was finally met with a large heading in bold font spelling out the word.

Cursed.

At this point, Will didn't even know if he was intrigued, or scared, or whether this was some kind of prologue to the preface or something. This was all so confusing and he felt like he was literally being attacked by the turn of events today. All he knew was that even if the book turned out to be boring, or otherwise, he'd insist on finishing the book.

_Ha, seems like you've really gone crazy now huh, William?_ He laughed to himself. Where had that amount of resolute come from? Now first of all, that had totally zero link to whatever he was thinking before that. Secondly, he wasn't ever usually so set on a certain goal. Sure, he was stubborn, but that wasn't quite the same as having this firm, unwaverable mindset. Wait--actually, it was pretty similar.

He knocked the side of his head light-heartedly. _Stupid_ , he mumbled under his breath, barely hiding a laugh.

His legs swung mindlessly forwards and backwards on the bench, and he opened the book again.

Reading the heading again to be completely sure he was indeed reading the first chapter, he finally actually began the story.

Illlllllllllllllllll

Safe to say, by the time Will was supposed to get off the bus, he was hooked.

So to sum up the two chapters he had just read, it was about this man named Phil. He appeared to be a really really fun guy, and he was on his way to the garden. He had a little sister, Skyle, and they were...well, at least Will guessed, on pretty good terms--close and all.

Then there was this man, at the garden, who was painting (at where Will had stopped, the name hadn't been mentioned). Anyway, this man was some kind of artist, painting the landscape and all.

Then came the part. Apparently, Skyle was this man's agent; to help him promote his art and stuff.

He didn't even know what was so compelling about it. Nevertheless, he enjoyed it.

Will grinned. This seemed to be some kind of romance novel, which kinda surprised him. Judging by Nico's...vibes (yes vibes, i know), Will wouldn't have guessed he was into these kinds of novels. Probably really stereotypical of him, but he'd kind of expected Nico to be into the horror or detective-murder genre for books.

Now of course, he could see he was wrong.

Will clicked his tongue, clipping the book between his index, middle, and ring finger in one hand, the other hand reaching into his pocket to tap out. As soon as he got off, he opened the book again, faintly aware of the loud roaring of engines starting up behind him.

_Ahh...so this artist man is Fred, Will thought as he read the next line. Fred, huh? Cool._

Will walked along the innermost edge of the pathway; even though he didn't particularly want to put down his book, neither did he really want to get knocked down by a car or something.

As he strolled slowly towards the dormitory, he felt his eyes begin to tire. Finding an appropriate place to stop, he closed the book and shut his eyes, pausing his reading for a while. He was just at the part where Skyle was trying to get Fred's art promoted.

And meanwhile, Fred was just...--Will clenched his fists, then unclenched them. _Gods Fred! Why. Are. You. So. dense?_ He scrunched his nose up in frustration. Skyle was obviously smitten with him, and yet there he was, a pure, innocent, and completely oblivious person.

Will inhaled deeply, then opened the book and started to read again. But this time, he didn't put the book down anymore til he reached the front step of his door.

Illlllllllllll

Will lay on his bed, letting the book rest on his chest. Down to the last five out of thirty chapters. His eyes felt like he hadn't been watering them enough or something. Tilting his head to look up at the still fan, he took a break from reading. Damn who knew reading would actually be so tiring, or well, so addicting that he'd read til he was tired?

Well he certainly hadn't known he could so easily be brought into another world just by, well, reading.

But still, something troubled him. So far, he hadn't found anything that would give him a clue on what would be so sad, or moving to Nico. Sure, maybe Fred's passion for the arts and the struggles he had gone through to be allowed to be an artist was really eye-opening, and Skyle's unwavering one-sided crush for him exhibited great suffering on her part, but to be reduced to tears? Will didn't think so.

Anyway, he guessed once he finished the last few chapters he'd understand.

His eyes flew open, and he was suddenly just so aware of how much he was sweating. Wait--why was he even perspiring? He stared up at the unmoving fan again, as though beckoning it to answer him.

Except that it was the answer. Will groaned. How stupid could he get, really? He couldn't remember the last time he'd gone into a room without switching on the fan.

Perhaps reading took away all kinds of natural instincts and reactions. Will shivered. Scary.

He took one last glance, internalizing the page number as he did so, before getting up and off the bed to take a bath.

He turned his back against the showerhead, feeling the cool water hitting against his skin. Will sighed, suddenly coming to recall that he still had some homework to complete. Again. As usual.

Turning around now, he let the icy droplets chill his heavy and tired eyelids. Reading was tiring, and he could almost swear he'd never delve into another book again. And while he was interested to find out what was so impactful about the book, he had to admit he kind of dreaded what was to come.

_And your homework too,_ the voice in his head nagged. _Don't you dare forget your homework William. Mom's gonna be so disappointed if you fail._ Will glared at the wall and slapped his head.

_Quit it,_ he told himself, _I'll just ask Will(2) for help._

_Oh would you really?_ The voice in his head simpered. Will gritted his teeth. _Go away. I'll do it after I bathe._

Then the voice disappeared. Will looked around the dimly lit bathroom blankly, and got out, shaking off the water on his body like a dog would. Then, he snatched the towel hung on the door and dried his body.

He turned to look in the mirror. He was torn. Should he do his work first, or read? Then what about after that? Or maybe he should get around to playing his guitar?

He smirked, a genius idea popping up in his head.

After all, nobody said he couldn't do all at once...

Illllllllll

As it turned out, nobody told him he could do all at once because it was just a horrible idea.

So in the end, he got to reading the book first. What he had not expected though, was to cry. To cry like a pathetic child over yet another of those sappy love stories. But this story was just a little different.

_In the end, Phil had to choose, love or life, his pride or his passion. As Skyle's accusing gaze ran down his back and legs, she gave him one last shove, and he was crawling his way out of the door. For he had made a choice; he had chosen love. His lost eyes searched around the gate, and on all fours, he made his way further out. Behind him, he left his passions and his entire life of pursuits. Then he saw him; he saw the path he'd chosen. Before him was his love: Fred. Even Skyle had left her brother, all because of love. "His kind of love," she called it. Why was it wrong, for a man to love a man? Why was it wrong, for Phil to love a man?_

_Why?_

_But he knew he'd never find out, because that was just the way society was. Society welcomed a talented man, a skilful man, an average man, an ordinary man, any kind of man. And he knew he could say that, because society didn't think of him as a man anymore; they didn't even think of him anymore. The moment he stared just a second too long at Fred, they knew, they all knew. He wasn't a part of them anymore. He was abnormal, a monster, an unwelcome freak. He didn't deserve a place in their city._

_But he was just a man. He was just a man, who'd happened to love another man. The one thing he'd fantasized of since he was 11 was such a cruel joke. Romance? Yeah sure. A life of bliss? Phil scoffed._

_He had made the choice to love, and this was his repayment. A life of nothing but pain and suffering. Why? Phil smirked in spite of himself._

_Because he was gay._

Will really cried at this. He knew how Jason's parents had thrown him out of the house because of exactly this. When Jason turned up at his room at 3 in the morning, what had he been supposed to do? Of course Will had taken in him. Then thereafter Will developed feelings for Jason, and vice versa, but it never worked out in the end.

Maybe Will was scared this was what would happen to Phil and Fred too. He knew how dumb it was, fretting over a fictional character. But then he remembered why he put down reading in the first place.

He didn't always _not_ read. He used to read volumes of books at a go. Perhaps he stopped because it pained him. Even if the book ended on a good note, Will would mope over it for weeks on end. For he knew that once he came to the end of a novel, he wouldn't know how the characters' lives would go. He'd never read about the breakfast on the day after the war, or the date that the main couple had hinted at in the last chapter.

So once he finally managed to find a good place to stop reading, he stopped it altogether. He rubbed his hands over the bent and folded book cover. Laying back on his bed, he let the fan blow dry his tears and the wind kiss his swollen nose. He may have read many books when he was young, but he never quite cried over a book like he just had.

Will laughed despite the situation he was in. Possibly because now that he was older and understood who he was, it hit home. Will sighed, and pushed the book to the back of his mind.

_Forget about it, William, this is exactly why you stopped reading Gods damn it._ He took a deep breath, and sat up. He closed his eyes, and pulled his guitar onto his lap. He had to remember that there was band practice later.

He ground his teeth together, and straightened his back upwards. His fingers found the strings clumsily, rusty from his three month break. As his eyes accidentally drifted over to the book lying at the side, he wondered if Nico too, was gay.

He rolled his eyes. _Probably not._ One did not have to be gay to cry over a gay person. He slapped his face. _Concentrate_ , he told himself. But something was nagging him at a corner of his brain.

_Study. Ask Will(2)._

Right. He had completely forgotten about that.

Resting the guitar on his crossed legs, he reached forward for his phone. Glaring upwards towards his brain, he typed a message to Will(2).

_Hey. I was wondering if you could help to tutor me. It's okay if you can't though. No pressure._

Will chewed his lip, knowing he wasn't exactly too chummy with Will(2). His hand hovered over the send button, wondering if he should add anything.

After a few seconds of pondering, he finally decided to add an emoticon, a smiling one, to be exact, and he got to sending the message. At last, that tiny annoying little demon nagging at him could be put to rest.

He waited a few minutes for him to give a reply, and when he didn't get any, he couldn't help but smile.

His fingers found the strings, and he took a deep breath. He strummed, but the sound was far from pleasant. His face wrinkled with disgust.

_Right, Solace. Brilliant. You forgot to tune the guitar. What an intellectual._ He rolled his eyes. Those months not spent on honing his musical skills was starting to have its effect on him. He hung his head, exhaling deeply.

He turned around to look for his tuning fork. He remembered he had left it somewhere, but where exactly? Now _that_ he did not know.

In the midst of his search, his eyes landed once more on the book. He could already feel himself being sucked towards the book to read the last few pages again. At the back of his mind, his subconscious could nearly convince him that maybe if he read it again, the ending could have turned out different--better, even.

He slapped both sides of his face. He couldn't afford to think like that--well, at least not now. Right now, what he needed, was a tuning fork.

Will pursed his lips, and took the book in his hand. Rubbing a hand along the spine of the book, he dropped it into his bag, and zipped it shut.

_Think_ , he chided. _Where could it be? The drawer?_ Will pulled open the drawer halfway then shut it immediately. _Nope_. _Not there._ He grunted. _The cupboard?_ He checked again. _No. Under the bed? Nope. Lying somewhere on the desk? Nice try. Behind the door? Ha you thought._

Will glared in frustration. He regretted laying off music for so long. He inhaled deeply. Fine. He could just tune it later to Kayla's drums...which now that he came to think of it, was really dumb.

He smacked his forehead. Stupid moron. How did he expect Kayla to bring her entire drum set over? It was a whole drum set for Gods' sake! And, it couldn't even have fit in her dorm with all that stuff lying around! Dumbass.

He threw himself onto his chair and quickly dialled Kayla.

"Hey Kayla."

"Huh yeah?"

"So i was thinking it was really dumb of me to think that you could bring your drum set over."

"Uh..." Kayla paused. "Oh right my drum's at the studio."

Will sighed. "Then what're we supposed to do?" He stopped. "Is Austin there?"

"Huh no. He's over at the Stolls. Heard they also invited Annabeth and her boyfriend."

"You mean Percy? Hm...didn't know they were close." Will shrugged. "Well anyway what're we gonna do about today then?"

"I-D-K. Cancel I guess?" Will made a noise at the back of his throat.

"But we can't!" He spluttered.

"Why not?"

"Because we're gonna have a concert soon! I mean, not that I've found a place...but still..."

"Sol, you really need to calm down about music y'know. I can just ask the person at the music club to give us a contract for a couple months at the studio i left my drums at so we can practise or something."

"The one that Chiron runs?"

"Yeah. I told him i was gonna leave my drums there til we started promoting again and asked him to look after it while i was gone."

"I-" The phone in his hand buzzed. "Hold on a sec. I've got a message."

_One new message from "Will": Sure. I'm free now. Wanna call?_

"Hey Kayla. Tell Austin about the change of plans yeah?"

Kayla clicked her tongue. "Hm okay."

"And get the contract for the studio." Will added.

"Yeah got it. The one year one right?" But even as she asked it, she already knew the answer.

"Yup. Anyway, I'm going to put down the call. Gonna study." Will said with a smile, knowing how weird it must have sounded to Kayla since he never really made the effort to set time aside to study.

"Doesn't sound like the Will i know." She laughed. "Well ok then. Bye."

She hung up without waiting for Will to reply. Will just shook his head and sent Will a message back.

_I'm free now too. Thanks for teaching me._


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hehe surprise surprise im actually alive  
> here's chapter 4  
> some parts will probably be a little cringey but I mean that may or may not just be me  
> I won't blame you if you dislike this chapter tbh it's not really eventful but if this doesn't happen then the rest of the fanfic probably won't come together so :/

_Band prac. was cancelled yesterday. I hope Kayla remembered to get a contract for today. Ha well considering what happened yesterday i'm probably going to the library. Again. Or maybe...hm. I'll see about it later. If Kayla got the spot then...this is gonna be so cool._

_William_

_Solace_

Will rubbed the back of his neck tiredly. He should not at all have stayed up so late the previous night. That was the first time in about a year and a half that he had studied for so long. He yawned. Will(2) may have been a great teacher, but he guessed he'd stick to Hazel instead. Will(2)'s teaching method was not for him.

Well at least...he got the information for the day's upcoming test. It was the first test of the year that was to be followed by a few more spread out in the later few semesters.

He walked over to Austin's desk, pulling Kayla's towards the both of them. There was still some time before the teacher came in for the first lesson.

Austin's eyebrows tilted downwards at the ends. He pushed aside the fringe that covered Will's eyes.

"I-woah. Did you pull an all-nighter or something?" His eyes flew over Will's dark under eye circles. Will lazily pushed away Austin's concerned hands, hesitating as he thought about how Nico often looked sleep-deprived. Just the image of Nico's dark eyebags further convinced him he couldn't be in too bad condition. He shook his head.

"I did sleep. I'm not the kind to sacrifice sleep." Kayla raised her eyebrows.

"Maybe not. But you do want to do well for Naomi, and that seems like a good enough reason for you to go against your usual patterns."

Austin glanced anxiously at Kayla who just shrugged. Austin gestured towards Will, and Kayla just rolled her eyes. "If he claims he's fine, then he is. I trust he knows his own limits."

Austin just shot one last doubtful look his way. Will just gave a passive smile. "Yeah."

Kayla took one of the pens on Austin's table and began to spin it around her fingers. "Anyway I'm sure Will wanted to tell us something, seeing that he made the effort to come here despite being so...fatigued."

Austin smiled, glad that he wasn't the only one thinking Will was out of sorts. Will just clicked his tongue at the last part, but didn't argue. He knew it was not like him to stay up to study. Staying up to do 'frivolous' things was like him, but to study? Hm, not really.

Will lay a hand on Kayla's shoulder, and looked at her in the eye. She squirmed. "Did you get the contract?"

"Uh yeah?" Kayla nodded, her gaze drifting away. He frowned.

"Why're you looking away? Hey!" He shook her.

"Well, it's really weird for you to be grabbing me like this? And awkward?" She said, sounding more like she was asking. Her eyes suddenly zoomed back into focus. She looked accusingly at Will. "Have you been doing drugs?"

Will fell back on his seat. "What? No! Kayla why would you think that?" I would never! Don't you know what drugs can do? They can freaking kill you! And they'd-"

Kayla stopped him right there. "Ok ok, I get that you were studying." She narrowed her eyebrows. "But then again...drugs can alter brain chemistry and can change how the brain performs and interfere with a person's ability to make choices."

Will gave her a bored look. "Are you going to listen to me or try to test my knowledge now?"

Kayla sank into her seat, backing away defensively. "I was joking. Man..." She sighed. "Anyway, I got the contract, as i was saying. And Chiron said we can go there after school."

Austin looked between the two of them. "Ok well then what time?" Kayla turned to her bag and whipped out a stack of papers.

"So i went to the studio last night." She caught Will glimpse at her. She just returned it with a brief smirk. "Yes I did it for the band. Thank me later."

"I wasn't going to." He pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a yawn taking over him. He caught himself in time. "I don't think you understand how dangerous it is, Kayla."

Kayla just blankly stared at him, like he was speaking some alien language. "I suppose. But I brought a syringe with me. To jab anyone who tried to do some funny stuff with me." She fisted her hands. "And I got these too."

Will couldn't help but snort. "You were saying?"

Kayla shifted her attention back to the stack of papers. She scratched the back of her head, embarrassed. "Well actually, i haven't read through these, but Chiron said the regulations and stuff were here." She shook the papers in her hand.

There were three copies of the contract. Kayla handed each one out among them, and Will quickly scanned the sheets. His eyes landed the opening hours.

"Huh. It says we can go there any time." He looked again at the line, and nodded to confirm what he'd just read. Glancing through the rest of the contract, he handed it back to Kayla.

"School today ends at 11 since there's an exam right?"

Austin momentarily put down the paper to flip through the timetable. "Yeah. Wanna have lunch together?"

"Sure." He looked to Kayla, who pondered over it.

"I've some plans til 2, so you can go ahead first." She collected the contracts back and shoved them into her bag, much to Austin's displeasure.

"Uhm, nevermind then. We can have lunch at 2, together. It'd be too early to have lunch at 11 anyway."

Kayla shrugged, then gave them both an 'okay' sign. Will then rushed back to his seat, and took out a few of his notes to revise. There was barely five minutes left before the teacher came in, and the exam would start.

As his fingers dug into his bag, he once again felt the hard backing of the book. He grimaced. Dang, he was hoping he hadn't read it that quickly. The ending was still lingering about in his head. He sincerely hoped it wouldn't affect his performance during the test.

After all, he'd promised Naomi that this time he returned to Texas during winter break, he could proudly show her results he himself was not ashamed of.

He read the notes he had compiled the previous night and mentally tested himself over and over again (of course, as much as he could in five minutes). He felt a buzz in his phone. Two new text messages.

_One new message from "Hazel": Good luck! You can do this :D I believe in you :)_

_One new message from "Will": Good luck! Remember to look out for clues in the questions. And don't forget to read closely to avoid misreading. Break a leg :D_

Will blew out a long breath of air through his mouth, and silently prayed to whatever gods there were up there to help him.

He saw the teacher enter the classroom before he could type back a response. He loosened the tension in his neck and rolled his shoulders back. He sat straight up, and gave Austin and Kayla a thumbs up.

He swallowed a ball of air as the teacher went down each row before finally reaching his, and put a test sheet on his desk.

The teacher looked to the clock on the wall, and cast Will a look of affirmation. He smiled nervously.

"Your time begins...now."

llllllllllll

Will strolled slowly to the library and found Nico, head lying on the table with a book in one hand.

Will discreetly returned the book to the librarian before plonking himself in the seat across Nico.

"Hey. You didn't come yesterday?" Nico said, putting his book down for a moment. He stared at Will, tilting his head to one side as he waited for a reply.

Will stared back at Nico for a second before the question registered itself in his head. "Uh..." Will looked down, then slowly brought his eyes up to meet Nico's. "I did. But...well..."

Nico raised an eyebrow, then a heavy silence settled over him. "Oh my gods!" He whispered, a fiery red blush searing through the paleness of his skin. He hid behind his long veiny fingers, and averted his gaze.

"I didn't mean for you to see that. I'm sorry." Nico muttered, his face going up in another bout of flames all the same. Will didn't once try to drop his gaze.

"Oh well. I mean, I borrowed it after you read it yesterday, and it was pretty nice i guess." Nico stared at him doubtfully, not really believing him. Will just scoffed. "It doesn't matter anyway. I cried too. What's with you anyway?"

Nico made a face. "What's with what about me?" He slapped Will's back, and it felt like Nico was holding back. Will snorted.

"Nothing important." Will shoved Nico's book back at him, prompting him to continue reading. A side of Nico's lips tilted upwards, dedicating a final glimpse at Will before delving into his book again.

Will himself rested his chin on the base of his palm, looking at Nico intently as he read. "You know, i'm just gonna continue talking while you read so you needn't pay any attention to me."

Nico looked up from his book, and something about that little movement sent butterflies in Will's stomach, making him illogically uneasy. "Yeah sure go on," Nico tilted his head again.

Will blinked. "Right. Anyway, after Wednesday evening at the coffee shop, i actually went to think about it and...you know, decided to start the band up again?"

Nico put his book down, seemingly interested. "Cool."

Will nodded. "Yeah, thanks to you. I suppose it really got me thinking. Like...school's gonna end soon and before i know it, i'm going to have to enter the working adult world and all, and...as much as i wish to, i don't think i'd be able to like...enjoy music as often."

"Yeah, unless you're gonna join being a busker with me." Will widened his eyes, as though really considering the option. Nico leaned back in his seat, slightly amused but still went on to make his point. "Uh no. I was just joking. Busking is tough work. Stay in school."

Will scoffed. "Yeah i know. I don't plan to be a busker. I'm in med school now anyway. Won't really make sense. But, as i was saying, i started to look for gigs and stuff and-" Will halted as he saw Nico's look.

"Yeah, we can perform at concert venues you know. You can just book, and stuff."

Nico looked on in confusion, then his expression darkened. "Oh. I didn't really come from here so I'm not really up-to-date with current events." Will glanced at him questioningly, then his conversation with Hazel suddenly popped up in his head.

"Oh right. You know that day when Hazel and you were talking..." Nico's face went from one emotion to another, to quick for Will to decipher before it went back to normal again.

"Yeah."

"I was asking Hazel about what y'all talked about, and yeah, i get that it's rude but...i thought it wouldn't hurt?" Nico sighed, shutting the book in his hands.

"Yes i know Marie," Nico responded flatly even before Will asked, as though he could read his thoughts. Will let Nico go on, knowing he probably would. "I...She just used to live around my neighbourhood."

Will looked skeptical, but decided to let it go. "Hm. Okay." Nico sighed.

"Ok fine so i'm not exactly telling the truth. But i'll tell you one day. Maybe." Will was beginning to get rather freaked out by how accurate Nico was at guessing what was on his mind. Will just nodded.

"I can't force you." Will accepted it. He himself hated it when people tried to get him to do something he'd already stated he hadn't wanted to before. "Well, i'm going to have lunch later with my bandmates. Wanna go with me?"

"You're asking me?"

Will wondered why Nico was so surprised. "I mean, I _am_ inviting you, and they aren't gonna say anything."

"Uhm...nevermind i think I'm just going to be a bother." Will gave a crooked smile.

"You? A bother? I don't think so." Will looked at his wristwatch and jerked it. It switched on, and showed him the time. 12:00. If they left now, they'd probably be relatively early, but then again, Will was planning to get Nico something.

"If you're fine with it, actually, we could get going now." Nico stared at Will, unblinking, and his fingers twitched.

"Now? Like, right now?"

"Uh yeah. I was thinking about getting you a phone or something. You know, like Hazel's." Will looked down, then to the side. "And about that, i'm not very rich so it's going to be on the cheaper side..."

Nico leaned forward, cutting him off right there. "I-wow." Then, likely taking in how close they were, he backed away and sat back in his seat. "Uhm...thanks."

Will shrugged. "I was worried you'd think i was being some insincere, but i suppose-"

"What? No! Of course not." Nico began to pack up what little he had on the table. Just a few music sheets and a plastic water bottle. Will looked at it; it looked rather old. Like it had been used for a few days now.

"Are you really that poor?" Will asked, then his hands flew to his mouth and clamped them shut. Gods, he had _not_ intended for that to come out loud. "Oh gods i'm so sorry. I didn't mean-i...Oh my gods. I am seriously so sorry."

Nico tilted his head in confusion, then softly laughed it off. Will couldn't help but think how much it sounded like music to his ears. "Oh it's fine. I get asked that everyday."

"But-it's so rude!" Will spluttered. Nico just raised an eyebrow at Will, then brushed it off. "Like i said, _it doesn't matter_."

Something about the warning undertone cautioned Will not to push it. Geez, he couldn't understand Nico sometimes. Will swallowed, stealing a look at Nico to see if he was mad or anything. To his surprise, Will didn't see a single trace of his previous annoyance, which made Will question if that was all a figment of his imagination.

Nico arranged his scores in order and slid them into a compartment in his bag. He turned to Will.

"Well shall we get going?"

Will, still ashamed and baffled by his own insensitivity, stiffly nodded and hurried after the boy, who he could only assume had a bus card of his own.

llllllllllll

They sat down side by side on the bench. Nico's legs swung just an inch above the ground. He sank into his shoulders, which propped his body up.

"You know, you don't have to be so awkward just because you think I'm poor." Nico said monotonously after a way too long period of silence. Will looked to Nico.

Nico locked eyes with Will briefly, then they instantaneously looked away. Will didn't know about Nico, but he could feel his face burning up like an overheating oven. He gulped.

"I-i mean, I'm not rich, and would probably be better off if i spent my money more wisely." Nico corrected himself. Will hummed, hunching his back as he waited for Nico to continue. "I suppose busking, for me, does help me get by rather smoothly. People really aren't as heartless as i expected."

Will opened his mouth to speak but then the bus for them pulled over. Nico slid off the bench onto his tiptoes and stood up. He gave Will a dull look then glanced at the bus.

In a constrained voice, Nico gestured to the bus. "Well this is it, right?"

Will nodded and got up.

lllllllllllll

"How's this one?" Will picked up a phone.

"Up to you." Nico shrugged. "My opinion doesn't matter." Will crossed his hands.

"What do you mean? It's going to be yours. Of course i need your thoughts."

Nico didn't even appear the least bit fazed. "Ok fine. That one works well i guess."

Will caught Nico peeking through his fingers to see the price tag, which Will had already smartly covered. Nico frowned then turned to the other phones of the same model to check the price. Will hurried up.

"William." Nico shook the phone in front of Will's face, and Will himself took a second to register his own name. The price tag dangled before his eyes.

Will scowled. "It's fine. I can afford it!" He protested, waving his hands about. Nico shook his head.

"Well _I_ can't." Nico muttered, a little bitterly. Will put his hands on his hips.

"That's why I'm getting it for you."

"But I'm going to pay you back one day, so that's somewhat irrelevant"

Will and Nico stared at each other silently. Will couldn't help but think how intense Nico looked when he was on the brink of anger.

Nico inhaled deeply, breaking the silence. He put a hand up in front of Will to prevent him from saying anything. Will's breath hitched in his throat. Nico's hand was really close to his face, and Will could just trace along the ridges of his finger's pattern.

"I'm sorry about that. I got out of hand. Geez..." Nico mumbled softly to himself. Will blinked, realizing he had spaced out.

"Right..." he trailed off, looking at the phone in his hand. "Well the number and phone comes as a package so since you're so insistent on paying, I'll leave you to pay for the contract?"

"Contract..?"

"Yeah you know..." Will awkwardly tried to explain. The shopkeeper looked at them suspiciously. Will ignored him, and carried on with his clumsy explaining skills. After a lengthy explanation, Nico nodded.

"Ah." Nico pointed a finger up towards the sky after a while. "I get it now."

They went to the cashier, and Will got to paying for the phone and its number. He turned around to look for Nico, but he appeared at his side.

Nico lay out a plethora of coins on the counter. Many were small divisions of money, some notes here and there. The shopkeeper frowned as Nico tirelessly began to count the money.

After a few awkward minutes of waiting, Nico pushed forward the bulk of the coins and notes. "Twenty-five bucks exactly."

The shopkeeper wrinkled his nose, and squinted at the coins. He grunted as he shoved the payment into the register.

"Thank you so much sir." Nico gave a quick bow and Will followed, hurriedly taking the bag of goods as they rushed out of the shop. Behind them, a long queue had already begun to form.

Nico breathed out heavily, like a load was lifted off his shoulders. "Damn it was getting really awkward back there," Will commented, panting tiredly himself.

In hindsight, the scene greatly resembled the first time he'd met Nico at the club. With the both of them rushing out of the venue after the blackout occurred and how they were both so exhausted after running.

A while passed, and Will finally straightened up. There was this one thought running through his head, and he still couldn't really understand.

"Hey Neeks-" Will started.

"Neeks?"

"Nico, Neeks...same thing." Will brushed it off, but...still, he hadn't really meant for himself to say that.

"Hardly," Nico muttered dully. Will rolled his eyes.

"You know, I could've just paid for you." Nico just shrugged. Will rolled his eyes, knowing how stubborn Nico was about this.

"Whatever. Anyway, didn't you say you had money from busking or something?"

Nico nodded slowly, and they both started to walk again. Will quickly searched through his memory to recall where it was he had planned to meet his group mates again. Right, the CHB restaurant..

Steering them in that direction, he nudged Nico, waiting for him to reply.

"Yeah i do make money, but I've been trying to save up recently." He hung his head. "You know, I wasn't _always_ like this. I actually used to have a decent life."

"I know," Will answered, not really taking heed of his response. Nico flinched.

"You know?"

"Uhm no? I mean, it's just a normal response of mine. Sorry please go on."

Nico looked doubtfully at Will but if he had intended for Will to get some message from that, he certainly didn't receive anything.

"Ok..." Nico stared at Will a moment longer than he expected, then a little pink, Nico averted his gaze again. "So back when stuff was better, i used to have this one particular hobby i enjoyed doing."

"Music?" Will probed, excited, only for Nico to shut it down.

"No. I only took up playing the piano because my father forced me to. Said it was 'gentlemanly' of me and that if my non-existent sister was around she'd have excelled at it."

"Oh." Will exhaled, slightly deflated. Nico's eyes shot to the side, and must have noticed it.

"Ah...i mean, i don't dislike it." He added quickly then returned to his usual quiet self.

A tiny thought poked him at the back of his head. It clicked. "Oh yeah you said you do singing too?"

Nico's neutral expression took on a dark tone. Will didn't know if he had taken it too far. "Uhm is it-"

"I only sing because it gets me money." Nico said the last part forcefully, like he was trying to press that down in Will's brain forever. Will shrugged, knowing now for sure he had pushed his boundaries yet again.

"So what _is_ your hobby?" Will tried to make a lighter conversation. Luckily, Nico didn't seem too hung up on it.

"I really like ice skating, but it's really expensive." Even as he said it, Will saw the light in his eyes. It was like Will had never seen before. Just in one glance, Will already knew how passionate he was about it.

"Oh? Who's your favourite skater?" Will asked, despite not even knowing the first thing about ice skating at all. At least Nico didn't seem to mind.

"Well...i don't really have one. Still, i don't think you know anything about figure skating." Will took the insult gladly. It was true after all. He wasn't some expert on it.

Nico carried on nonetheless. "But then again, i'm not from around here, so that's acceptable," Nico continued in a childlike teasing tone. "In figure skating, skaters usually start quite young, and because of the impact on their joints after each jump, their careers end pretty quick. The-"

"Jumps?" Will cut in. Nico scowled at him.

"Don't cut me off," he commented, though he didn't look too bothered by it. "As i was saying, the jumps in figure skating are those turny-spirally things in mid-air. More rotations means higher value, unless of course, they mess up."

Nico turned to Will with bright eyes he'd never seen before. Strangely, Will felt excited for Nico, despite not having any bit of interest in skating at all.

Nico broke into a small grin, and Will's spine tingled. Will sent back a shaky smile, but Nico didn't notice.

"You want to know what type of jumps there are?" Nico asked, and Will couldn't help but think about how happy Nico looked when he talked about his interests.

His eyes lit up, the sunlight reflected from the windows bouncing off his dark eyes. It was almost like the dumb disco ball at the club that he hated so much, but yet, he adored this one before him.

Before Will could agree, Nico went on to explain. "There are six main types of jumps. The axel, toe loop, Lutz, Salchow, loop, and flip."

Nico stopped as Will raised his hand to ask a question. Nico turned to face him, and they stopped walking.

"Hm?" Nico inquired. Will opened his mouth to say something (he had planned to ask what was the difference between the loop and the toe loop), but he didn't want Nico to shut up about what he was saying. He'd observed since their first interaction that Nico didn't say much, and though Will didn't openly say it, he secretly loved it when Nico spoke about himself.

It usually seemed like Will was the one carrying most of the conversation so when Nico finally opened up, Will was glad to know more about him. Will felt that Nico knew more about him than the other way around, and for Will, as a med school student who was used to stuffing his brain with information, it was most unsettling.

"Nothing." Will breathed, indicating for Nico to continue, and to be honest, if they had been talking about something else, Nico looked as though he'd have insisted.

Point is, he didn't. Instead, he just studied Will with a cynical look and went on as they walked along the path.

"If you say so," Nico shrugged. "Anyway, my favourite jump is the Lutz. I don't know why, maybe it's because of..."

Will, for the first time in a conversation between them both, kept quiet as Nico spoke animatedly about it. Will supposed one could say he was drawn in by the way Nico talked. Maybe it was the slight accent in his tone, or how he pronounced his 't's and 'i's differently from people around there.

Will just, all in all, loved to hear Nico speak, seeing that he didn't do so often. Will smiled, but a familiar feeling nestled itself in his stomach. He vaguely remembered feeling this before.

But that was long ago. He gritted his teeth through his grin, and clenched them together tightly. Still, the feeling didn't ease.

"Er...are you okay?" Nico stopped walking. He awkwardly drew his hand up to reach behind his neck, and left it there, looking down with an embarrassed look. "I said too much, didn't i? Sorry 'bout that."

Will quickly shook his head. "Uh...n-no?"

Nico brought his gaze up to meet Will's, unconvinced. "Huh," Nico mumbled.

Will blinked rapidly. "Yeah! I mean, uh, carry on. I'm listening."

Nico shifted uncomfortably, averting his gaze. "Right. As i was saying..."

Illllllllllllll

Will caught sight of a hand waving at him. He gripped Nico's arm and gently pulled him towards it. Kayla had changed into a pair of cuffed jeans but kept her blouse from earlier.

She waved at him again, and he sped up slightly. He glanced behind him. Nico appeared a little fazed by the rush and large mass of people, but he clutched on tightly to his bag. Nico's eyes met Will's, and Will quickly averted his eyes.

Instead, he scanned the restaurant for the clock. It was 2:15. Will sighed; he'd been later than he'd planned for. Kayla and Austin were probably expecting a treat.

He peered over the back of the seats. He blew out a sigh of relief this time. Austin still somehow managed to be later than the both of them.

At last, they made their way among the crowd and took a seat opposite Kayla. Kayla looked from Will to Nico, and without a single word, she began to study him.

"Ah...are you Nico?" Nico gave a hesitant nod, glancing to Will for help.

"This is Kayla. Pretty distant relative of mine, but we have more of a friendship relationship." Will made a motion to Kayla, and she smirked in response.

"Well yeah. Mom told me about it. But you can say i don't really give a crap about how we are related." She shrugged. "Austin, who's not here yet, and i are basically cousins, and i don't treat him much differently from Will here."

At the mention of Will's name, Nico sat back. "A-ah. Ok."

Will looked back and forth between them both, and he cleared his throat. "Right. Austin should be coming right around now?"

Nico shook himself out of his daze, and Will reached out to wave a hand in front of him, but he stopped himself short.

Nico swallowed, and inhaled. "I think you already know, but anyway I'm Nico." Kayla laughed, but unlike her usual laughs, this one seemed to not hold any teasing vibes with it.

"Hm yeah i know. Will has said a lot about you." Her face suddenly turned serious. "One can say he is friendly with everyone, but other than Austin and i, he doesn't really talk to other people. So you must be someone who is pretty close to him."

Nico shook his head. "I only met him a few days ago."

Will narrowed his eyes at Kayla's remark. "That's not true! I do talk to Will...and used to talk to Jason as well."

Will shot a quick peek at Nico, wondering if his assumption was right. Will had guessed Nico had some problem with the particular name "Will", seeing that he was so insistent on calling him William instead, despite it being longer and troublesome to say.

And there it was. The same look. Will observed Nico's unusual behaviour quizzically. So it seemed he _did_ have some sort of negative memory linked to his name. Will didn't have a clue what it could possibly be.

Kayla appeared not to have noticed any of this. She took out the menu from under the table.

"Well, let's order first then." She rubbed her palms together. "Austin's gonna pay for us this time. Let's not hold back hm?"

Will hesitantly took a menu, and handed one to Nico. "Here. Take a look."

Will reached for another menu, but there were only two. One in Kayla's hand, the other in Nico's. Will leaned back in his seat, eyeing Nico as his fingers ran over the dishes on the page.

Nico turned sharply towards Will, and handed him one side of the menu.

"There's only two menus right?" Nico gestured with his eyes over to the menu stand. Will blinked.

"Uh yeah." He held on to one side of the menu. "Thanks." His eyes traced over to his side of the menu, his elbow bumping against Nico's. Sheesh Will sure learnt about malnourishment and the many forms in which it appeared but actually touching someone malnourished was...different. Will turned to Nico, and gave his body a quick scan. He supposed he never quite took heed of it before, but Nico looked a little to skinny for a human.

As his eyes slowly travelled upwards, their eyes met.

"What?" Will asked abruptly, perhaps even a little too loud. Kayla glanced up from her own menu, raising an eyebrow in question. Nico shrank into his seat.

"Uhm...excuse me. I need to use the restroom." He stiffly stood up, looked between the two of them, his face completely flushed, and gave a quick, curt bow.

"Nico wait-"

"Don't stop him Will." Kayla pulled Will's sleeve. "If some creepy man randomly turned to me and said something like that, I'd also have left."

Will frowned, just to receive a resigned sigh from the girl. "Geez. I thought your people skills were good. Right now, i don't know how i thought that they were decent at all."

She hit his head lightly. "You little piece of shit."

He scowled, rubbing the back of his head.

Still, his glare softened, and changed altogether into one of excitement. "So, what'd you think of him?"

Kayla gave a neutral face. "You make friends with all kinds of people, so i suppose it's somewhat expected of you to make friends with him. He's a little skinny."

"Yeah I noticed. Looks like just one blow and he'd be broken like a twig."

Kayla gazed at him. "Be gentle with him, Solace. And you know, sometimes your phrases of expression worry me." Kayla took a gulp of her water. "About him, he's kinda plain for a boy."

Will was aghast. He didn't know how someone could describe Nico as just " _plain_ ". It seemed obvious to him that Nico was more than just a boy who tagged along with him.

"Ah of course, I've only just met him, so you can't expect much from me." She scoffed. "But i have to say, he does look kinda masculinely pretty."

"Pretty?"

"His long-ish hair definitely plays a part, and i would die to have his brown eyes. I mean, i love my eyes, and i don't necessarily think it'd look good on me, but brown eyes are so..." she sighed. "...charming? I-D-K the word."

Will just stretched his lips to what he hoped looked like a smile. Without adding on, he returned to look at the menu. In his mind, images of Nico surfaced. None of them looked exactly "girlie" or "feminine".

Nico suddenly appeared behind him, and slid into the seat. Kayla's eyes instantly shot back down to her menu, and pretended to be deep in thought, but Will noticed she'd been on the same page for about seven minutes now.

"Hah well...let's order-"

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late..." Austin ran up to them, a little out of breath. Panting, he rested his hands heavily on the table, causing it to shake. Then, he straightened up.

It didn't take him long to catch sight of Nico. His face broke into his usual friendly smile.

"Hi, you must be Nico." He extended a hand towards him. "I'm Austin, Kayla's cousin and uh, i guess you can say I'm pretty close to Will too."

Nico himself smiled, looking rather uneasy. "Nice to meet you." He shot a look towards Will. "How come they all know about me but i don't know about them?"

Will laughed it off awkwardly. "They're um, the band i told you about anyway, as i mentioned earlier when i asked you to come with us. I just left out the names because i didn't think you'd meet them one day."

Nico drew together his eyebrows. "Huh. Sure."

Kayla nudged Austin as he crept into the seat beside her. "We've already decided what we want, and since you're late, you're gonna treat us."

Austin gave her a pained look, but didn't try to retort. It had been an unspoken rule between them; the latest would foot the bill.

He flipped through the menu quickly, then pressed the bell for the waiter to come.

"You know, if i hadn't reserved a seat for y'all, none of you would've even gotten to be at this restaurant," Kayla suddenly said.

"Yeah thanks." Will agreed. Nico turned around in his seat, surveying the area.

"Why?" Nico asked. Everyone's eyes focused in him.

"Why what?" Austin ventured.

"I mean, it doesn't _exactly_ seem like it has what it takes to be so...crowded," he trailed off, unsure.

Kayla studied him once more, then smirked. "Yeah, the food is pretty average but the price is just-" she made a fleeting gesture. "-over the top."

Nico heaved a sigh of relief. "Man i thought I'd said something wrong."

Before they could give any form of reply, the waiter arrived at the table. "Sorry ma'am and sirs, the restaurant is extremely busy today. I apologise for the delay."

He drew out his notepad from the front pocket of the apron. "May i take your orders?"

"Uh...no worries about the situation. Business must be good anyway." Will waved away the apology graciously. "I'd like a vegetable stuffed chicken cutlet and...he'd have a..."

Will motioned towards Austin. Austin piped up. "I'd have a fish fillet."

The waiter nodded, then glanced at Kayla and Nico. Kayla spoke first. "A pork chop and spaghetti for me. And a pepperoni pizza."

Will snickered softly at the look of surprise on the waiter's face. People tended to think of Kayla having a tiny appetite seeing her small stature but in fact, she had the biggest appetite of the group.

The waiter didn't question it, and that in itself made Will respect him. Almost all the time, the waiter would go "oh are you sure you can finish all this?" or "are you ordering it as takeaway for your brother at home?" or sometimes even "wow you're such a sweet girl, ordering for your whole family!" or something along those lines. He'd always hated this kind of inequality.

Finally, the entire group turned to Nico. He coughed nervously.

"Right um. A salad for me." The waiter once again speechlessly gave a funny look. Austin held his hand up just as the waiter was about to leave.

"Wait, Nico-"

" _Nico._ " Will corrected. Nico gave him a fleeting look.

"Right whatever. _Nico_. Aren't you going to be hungry later? A salad here isn't really..." Austin squirmed under the watching eyes of the waiter. "...filling."

Nico cracked a tiny smile. "Yeah I'll be alright."

The waiter stood around a while, then left. Austin shared a look with Kayla, but she shrugged. Will also decided to drop the question.

"Soooo...Nico. Has Will told you anything about our band?"

"Um...not much. I just heard y'all disbanded, but are coming together again and having a performance soon."

"Once i find a place. I promise I'm searching," Will cut in before anyone said anything.

"Okay well _anyway_ , i know you already know, but I'm Kayla--Kayla Knowles, and i play the drums. Austin here, is the rhythm guitarist, and Solace is the lead guitarist."

Nico stopped blinking for a moment, and looked at Will in the eyes. Will shuddered.

"Solace?"

Kayla looked at Will. "Uh yeah, i call him by his last name sometimes."

Nico fell deep into thought silently. Kayla raised an eyebrow.

"Ah so who does vocals?" Nico asked suddenly.

"Me." Will added meekly. "I probably don't look like it but-"

"I thought so."

Kayla shrugged. "Yeah he does vocals." She clicked her tongue. "I don't know how he does it. It usually isn't the lead guitarist who is the lead vocalist as well, but...Austin kinda can't sing on stage. He sings perfectly fine in practice but i guess it's some sort of stage fright or something."

"I don't have stage fright!" Austin protested loudly. Kayla raised an eyebrow and smirked.

"Oh yeah? What about that time you suddenly stopped singing halfway into our debut performance?"

Austin scowled and turned away. "That was one time."

Will sighed. "Well if you want to be in charge of vocals i don't mind."

"Uhm nevermind I'm fine with my role right now." Austin quickly answered. Kayla was about to rebut, but just at that moment, the waiter arrived with their food.

In a flash, they began to dig in to their food.

Between bites, Kayla started to talk again. "You know, I've been thinking. What school do you go to? I mean, you don't look much older than us."

Will stopped breathing for a second. However, Nico answered without hesitation.

"Ah i don't go to school. I busk at a mall near my home." He glanced up at them all for a moment, then returned to picking at his meal.

"Oh. Oops, my bad..." Kayla winced. "Sorry," she added on quickly. She looked at him doubtfully, then her guilty look morphed into one of sudden realisation.

"So in other words, you do music?"

"I mean, music isn't the only busking act around but yes."

Austin grinned. "Ah. You probably have guessed by now but the three of us are pretty deep into music. Kayla here is our leader."

Kayla grinned. "Didn't guess huh?" Nico shook his head.

"Well nobody ever guessed it was me before." She scoffed. "Almost. There was this one guy who guessed though. If _somebody_ hadn't decided to court him, i'd probably have been dating him for a year or so now."

Will shifted uncomfortably. "Or not."

Kayla bristled at his comment. Nico stuffed a forkful of lettuce into his mouth. "Who is he anyway?"

"Jason Grace. But yeah Will's right. He never gave me a second look even when the two of them were dating."

At this point, Will was positive this was going to become yet another let's-expose-the-fact-that-Will-is-gay session. Annoyed, he forcefully cut into his chicken cutlet noisily. But as usual, his friends didn't take heed of it.

That is, with the exception of Nico. He shot a quick glimpse at Will from the corner of his eye, and cautiously ate another bite of his salad.

"Who and Jason were dating?"

Austin cut in before Kayla could take the question. "William Solace. Your friend right here." Austin proceeded to make a wild gesture around Will and Kayla joined in the fun. Will groaned.

"Why do you have to go around telling everyone this? We've already broken up anyway."

Kayla settled back in her seat. "Yeah. Couldn't have guessed." She thoughtfully put a finger to her lips. "Come to think of it, i don't remember ever finding the reason why you broke up with him."

Her eyes narrowed, and she cracked her knuckles. "Is it because of Piper? I swear to G-"

"No it's not because of Piper damn it." Will shoved his chicken into his mouth showily, to get across the message that he was done talking about this.

"Well whatever. It's for your own good anyway." Kayla rolled her eyes at him and shrugged. She shifted her gaze over to Nico. "We're gonna go to the studio for band practice right after this. Wanna come?"

"...studio?"

"Uh...yeah. It's kinda like a place where bands can practice because since it's soundproof nobody will be disturbed or anything."

"Oh."

Nico finished up the rest of his food long before the others, and watched them eat. Will looked at Nico's empty plate. He didn't even need to listen in class to know that a tiny salad was insufficient for a teenage boy.

Will put another piece of meat into his mouth, still watching Nico intently. He guessed he could now understand what Kayla had meant earlier by "pretty".

His eyes had this really nice shape and the way his hair fell down his neck and behind his ears was...he sighed. He didn't know the word to describe it properly.

Kayla offered Nico a slice of pizza, and he politely accepted it. Will smiled triumphantly. He knew Nico couldn't possibly be full from those leaves he called a meal.

Then he saw Austin's guitar lean against the side of the table. Looking at it a little longer, his eyes widened. He downed the rest of his food (to which Kayla looked on with surprise and amusement) and slung his bag around the corner.

Choking slightly on his food, he awkwardly wriggled past Nico and began to run out of the store. He last caught sight of Nico's bewildered look.

Kayla and Austin called after him, but Will was already on his way. Running, he took out his phone and began to type out a message.

_Yo guys, sorry about it. I forgot to bring my guitar. Meet y'all at the studio. Tell Nico to stay. Wanna play something lit for him?_

He tried to put his phone back into his pocket, but obviously, trying to do that while running and not dropping his phone simultaneously was difficult. He decided to hold it in his hand and waited for Kayla or Austin to reply.

His phone buzzed with a new message. Without checking who it was from, he read the message.

_I worry about your forgetfulness. I sometimes think i have an old man for a best friend._

He grinned and sped up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading


	5. Chapter 5

_I can't believe it. How could I have forgotten to bring my own guitar? Geez I must have been too pumped up to meet Nico._

_William_

_Solace_

Will burst into the studio panting, his hair and face a whole mess. Sweat rolled down his temples and dripped off his chin. His form bent over, his guitar sliding off his back, and he put his hands on his knees.

"Man i am _so_ sorry for making y'all wait."

Nico raised his eyebrows, and looked at him. Will glanced up and straightened up, looking slightly downwards to meet his eyes.

"Did you not take the bus? Your sweat could fill up a whole lake," Nico commented. Kayla snickered at his comparison, and Will curled up slightly into a ball.

"Damn i must smell horrible." Kayla rolled her eyes.

"Kinda. But it's expected." Austin smiled.

Will dug into his bag, reaching for the spare shirt he'd taken when he'd run back home. He scowled at Kayla's smirking face as he dove into the back room to change.

"Hurry up Solace," Kayla called. Austin hooted to show his agreement. Will pulled his shirt over his head, and shrunk away from it.

"Okay okay!"

"Nico has to leave in a while, so if you still plan to play something for him you'd bett-"

"I'm done now. Man, Kayla...you need to _chill down_."

"Yeah yeah okay whatever. Sorry 'bout that I'm just _really_ pumped up about practice. Especially since I've not touched my drums in a while now."

Will raised an eyebrow, then he shook his head. No, he did not have time to start bickering. He inhaled.

"Right. Anyway, i was thinking about playing the pieces we played for our last concert. Since we played it quite a lot, i think though we're a little rusty, it should come quite naturally."

Kayla nodded. "Sometimes i think you should be the leader instead of me."

Will sighed, knowing how despite Kayla never openly saying it, Kayla was pretty insecure about her role as leader. After all, Austin and Will had basically forced the position on her as they had roles of their own. Will being the leader was obviously out of the question-he couldn't handle the responsibility on top of maintaining his vocals, and getting exceptional results for Naomi. Austin, well, wasn't a leader figure.

Kayla, meanwhile, was pretty responsible, and knew the both of them through and through. Her confidence in introducing herself as leader was mainly the problem, but as Will observed from earlier, she was slowly getting the hang of it.

"Kayla please. You're doing better than Austin or I can ever." Will brushed away her attempts at retorting and picked up the guitar from the ground. He cradled it in his hands and took one of the tuning forks by the side.

"What're you doing?"

Without looking up, Will answered Nico. "Tuning my guitar." Not long after he said that, he placed the tuning fork back where he'd found it and strummed it for Nico to hear.

"Electric guitar here," Will told Nico. "I like to use this thing." Will picked up a distortion pedal.

"What's that?"

Will grinned wildly. He loved to talk about his work. "A distortion pedal. To get a consistent particular sound, distortion helps. I know you probably don't understand about what i'm going to say but-"

"No it's fine. You lent me fifteen minutes to hear me ramble about figure skating, I think it's only right I do the same."

Will chuckled, oblivious to Kayla and Austin's careful ears. "Okay, don't regret it later. So basically, an overdrive uses the original sound but makes it more...somewhat forceful? On the other hand, a distortion pedal completely alters the sound and makes it sound heavy? Like...I don't really know how to explain it. You should be able to hear the difference though."

Nico tilted his head to the side. "I've heard an acoustic guitar before though I am sure they sound very different, but if all electric guitars that i've heard used the distortion pedal then no, I don't think I'd be able to hear the difference."

Will stretched. "Huh. I suppose not. Did you use to do well in school? You seem pretty knowledgeable."

"No. I was terrible. Teachers only liked me because they knew my dad. It was...i hated school."

Kayla snorted, knocking her drum sticks together. "With much intensity, so it seems."

Kayla sighed. "But I kinda get it i guess. I'm only in med school because out of all the schools i tried out for, only this one let me in. I tried out for some archery school but they said I could only enter if I was sixteen. And I was fourteen then. It sucked, but I'm gonna try again later this year."

Kayla said it with such certainty in her voice Will couldn't even find a way to dissuade her. He knew Kayla's father ( _I'm talking about Darren here_ ) wouldn't be pleased about it, but that Will could understand. No parent would want their daughter to live in financial uncertainty.

"Well then-" Will started his part in the song, strumming hard. A glint shown in Nico's eyes, one that Will couldn't differentiate between excitement, or fear. "Let's start shall we?"

Kayla appeared caught off-guard, but recovered quickly. "Sure." She spun her sticks on top of her fingertips, then tossed them up, snatching them into her grasp in mid-air. She followed along to Will's playing.

Austin just joined in without a word. Will, meanwhile, felt the feeling of familiarity flow through his veins. To be honest, he didn't even know if he was playing the right song, or right notes. He didn't know what the next few notes were; he'd forgotten to look over them again. But he trusted his muscle memory.

Nico settled in a corner, sliding his bag off his shoulders as he sat on the floor. Will's eyes strayed a little from his instrument, and looked to Nico. He looked so small and...vulnerable?

Will tore his eyes away from him. No. He should be drowning in the sound of his guitar.

Perhaps it was because he'd been strumming too hard earlier, or maybe he'd simply not played enough in the past few months, but his fingers slowly began to ache. He chuckled, glancing at Austin.

So he wasn't the only one. He'd almost forgotten how playing the guitar came at the cost of having nice smooth hands. Will grinned even more as he felt the skin in his hands and fingers start to blister.

Warped? Probably. Nobody enjoyed getting callused hands, but it simply further proved that Will was minimally a decent guitarist.

Every so often, he allowed his eyes to drift over back to Nico. Everytime, Nico would frown at him and swat his hands around to get him to focus back on his guitar-playing.

Will didn't get it. He was, after all, playing for him. So he didn't give Nico any heed. After a while, Nico just sighed and eased into a more relaxed position. He pulled his knees up under his chin.

Will almost allowed himself a thought. A thought he knew he should've forgotten about, a thought never should've even come into his mind.

He mentally gave himself a huge slap. _Stop it_. _You shouldn't be thinking about that._ He took in a huge ball of hair, breathing in heavily.

For a brief moment, he feared his fingers stopped playing during his thinking process. As he opened his eyes, however, his fears were alleviated. Thank the gods he'd spent those many hours months ago practicing this piece over and over again that it'd become muscle memory to him.

Will's fingers moved over the last note, and the sound reverberated throughout his head. He gave a shaky smile.

"That was...way more intense than i thought it'd be."

Nico just clapped softly at the corner. Will grinned wildly. "Wanna hear another piece? There's still time before you have to leave right?"

Nico looked around for a clock, then awkwardly turned to his phone. "Yeah. I just have to leave by 3. There's still about a half-hour.'

Will rushed to his bag to get some scores, then remembered something. He'd been thinking about Nico's music skills recently. Since he busked, he probably should have pretty good, or at least decent, skills. Not to mention Nico did get a fair bit of money. Besides, sympathy could only go so far. The extra amount of money had to come from level of skill.

"So actually Nico, i was thinking uhm, you know, there's a piano here, at the back. Wanna play something for us to hear?"

Kayla and Austin turned their heads eagerly. Will knew the both of them loved to hear other people play music.

"I...I'm good."

Will smirked, advancing towards him. "Come on. Repay the favour?"

Nico fell into silence, pondering. "Just one song."

Will beamed in triumph. Austin instantly rushed to the back and with Kayla and Will, they pushed out the piano.

By the time Will finished setting up the piano, Nico had already taken out a score sheet. He looked accusingly at Will, who just shrugged. Nico sighed.

He sat on the bench, and Will saw his fingers hang just above the keys. He'd heard of how playing the piano gave one longer fingers or something, and assuming that was right, Nico must have played for a pretty damn long time now. He heard yet another audible sigh leave Nico's lips.

Will glanced at the score sheet. He wasn't some expert on playing the piano, but because of his father, he used to dabble in it a little. But soon after he switched to the electric guitar as he seemed more suited for it.

His first thought when he saw the piece Nico was going to play was- _dang that's a lot harder than the one I played when I was seven_ , which now that he thought about it, must have been obvious. He was sixteen now. It'd been nine years since then.

Obviously reluctant, Nico started to play. His eyes hardly ever looked down from the sheet, yet his fingers touched and pressed each key correctly. Will knew with certainty at that point that Nico played this piece often. Very often.

"Flip it." Nico mumbled suddenly.

"Huh?" Will shook himself out of his daze.

"He said _flip it_ ," Kayla reiterated, then proceeded to turn the page for Nico. "Dude he is literally right next to you."

"It's fine. Whatever. Thanks...Kayla?"

"Mhm that's me."

Nico blinked, then continued to play the rest of the piece. Will took a step back-he felt a little too close for comfort to Nico. He began to study Nico. Boy, he had really nice posture, or well, could have when he wanted to.

Not that, to be honest, he appeared much taller, but at least, just a little.

He had a pretty nice neck too, and Will could see that clearly now that he tied up his hair. The bones were nicely aligned, right where each one was supposed to be, in a perfect line.

And his shoulders were pretty cool too. Will moved about his own shoulders. He liked his own, but Nico had really _really_ enviable shoulders. It was almost like Grace's shoulders.

Nico's hands moved fluidly over the keys, and the music he produced sounded like it came from heaven. It was so serene, and pure, and, and...angelic.

As Nico finished it up, Will began to clap excitedly. "That was so good!"

Nico moved his hand up to the back of his neck. "Hah...no one has ever told me that."

Kayla threw an arm around Nico's shoulders. "It was awesome," she affirmed. When Austin didn't say anything, she lightly slapped his back.

He scowled at her, but then she jerked her head towards Nico. "Right," Austin cleared his throat. "I really liked it…"

Austin trailed off, and Will could automatically tell Austin found something off. Will tilted his head. "What is it?"

Austin didn't appear too fazed by Will's accuracy. "I don't know...it sounds like he's pulling back or something."

Nico looked away, lowering his line of sight. Kayla gave the two of them a look, then shook her head. "Don't take any of their bullshit to heart. It was good. Really."

"I'm not bothered by it. Thanks." Nico looked up and gave a halfhearted smile.

He got up from the bench, and collected his sheets, then closed the piano. Then, all of them pushed the piano back to where they'd found it.

Kayla put a hand on her hip, looking at her wrist watch on the other. "It's 2:45 now. I think that there's enough time for another song but…"

She looked past Will's shoulder, rolling to the tip of her toes as she strained her neck to get a good look. She pursed her lips. "Just as i thought. The weather here in New York seems pretty unpredictable lately. It's raining. You should get going, considering the buses will be delayed, as always, by the weather."

Will turned around. Man, it was raining. He looked around his bag for an umbrella.

"Uhm, William? What're you doing?" Nico asked, just as he was about to step outside the studio.

"Looking for my umbrella..?" Will raised an eyebrow. What was so weird about it. He turned to Kayla and Austin, who both looked at him funny.

"But...you aren't the one leaving? Nico has to leave. Not you..?" Kayla asked, rather bemused.

"Yeah…Unless, you didn't tell us you had plans?" Austin followed.

Will looked back and forth between Nico, Kayla, and Austin. "But…"

He looked towards Nico, who'd taken off his jacket. He didn't have an umbrella with him, now did he? Will himself quickly rummaged through his own bag and took out his.

"He doesn't have an umbrella, and no way am i going to let him use his jacket as one." He stared at Kayla and Austin with much intensity, even Austin shuddered.

"Alright alright, you don't have to give us _that_ look." Austin hugged himself. Kayla just sighed, shrugging.

"Whatever. You've always been like that," Kayla huffed, visibly annoyed and rightfully so.

"Look I'm sorry, but…" Will turned to see Nico awkwardly exiting the room. "I'll buy ice cream for y'all on the way back here."

Without waiting for them, he rushed out of the studio to catch up with Nico.

llllllllllllll

Will caught Nico by his sleeves. Finally getting to see him without a jacket really gave Will a full idea of just how scrawny he was.

Plus with the rain outside, he must've been really cold. Will gingerly took the jacket from Nico's hands and put it around Nico. He pressed his lips together grimly. He had to help Nico get some fat on his bones.

"You shouldn't be here," Nico said in a low voice. Will huffed, and rolled his eyes.

"I know, none of y'all want me to accompany you. But just take it as humouring me."

Nico cracked a little smile. "I'm not very entertaining to talk to."

Will sighed in disagreement. "Whatever. Where're you going anyway?"

"Uh, you can just bring me to the bus stop. I know what to do from there."

Will went out the door first and opened up the umbrella. Rain sprinkled from the wet fabric onto his face. Nico, from inside the studio, gave a short laugh.

"William geez…" Nico walked out of the studio and slipped into the space beside Will, just where the umbrella covered up til.

Will tilted the umbrella towards Nico and started to walk. "You know," Will began. "I'm really interested in your skating stuff. I tried to skate before, but it failed. I have no balance whatsoever."

Nico raised an eyebrow, nuzzling his nose into his jacket. "Then why'd you skate if you were so bad at it?"

Will could hardly hold back a loud chuckle. "Hazel begged me to go with her, but then subsequently she found another person and decided not to disturb me anymore? Hazel was pretty good at it. I don't even know how! It's like-to be honest, she really sucked at it at first, then after she found that her late dad left her these special edged skates she was just-you won't believe she was the same person who'd slipped and fell so often."

"Really?" Nico rolled his shoulders backwards, cracking the joints in his neck and fingers. Will turned to look at Nico, whose lips looked like somebody had sucked the blood right out of them.

"Yeah. Her mum had just passed, so it was some kind of therapy for her. Plus her dad wasn't around anymore either, so the gift he'd left behind was different, in a sense." Will leaned in closer to Nico, bending down and pretending to whisper. "Some people are just born with natural talent. I'm so jealous."

"But...since her father is so distant, won't she somewhat hate him for it? I mean, it seems only right."

Will sighed, taking out a spare hoodie he'd always brought along with him. He couldn't stand it, seeing Nico so cold yet trying to hide it. He tossed the hoodie to Nico, and offered to carry his bag while he put it on.

Nico caught it with both hands, hesitant, but gave in and let Will carry his bag for him. He pulled the hoodie over his body, but the hood stayed atop his head and covered his eyes.

 _Just adorable_ , Will thought offhandedly. He returned Nico's bag to him. "I suppose, but Hazel's a sweet girl. Kind of. She's really loyal, and kind. She's the type of person who easily forgives, but...with her father, she didn't ever truly get over it."

Nico wrinkled his nose. "Why?"

"Hazel and I concluded by ourselves that Marie died because of overworking. Marie wasn't the best mum, but Hazel really relied on her, and in a sense, Marie's death pretty much destroyed her childhood. We guessed the main cause for Marie's overworking was because she had to bear the burden on her own, and that would be due to Hades' ditching her. But then again, Hades had passed a while ago. Still, he didn't quite leave inheritance for the both of them. But then after that, Hazel chose to look at the skates as just an object, not Hades' gift, not her father's present, but just as a pair of skates...so she started to use it."

Nico stopped walking. Will looked at him-the colour had returned to his lips. Will gave a relieved smile. "Hades?" Nico asked.

Will nodded. "Hades, as in the one with the black hair and mopey expression on his face all the time?"

"Uh...yeah…" Will found something really eerie about the way Nico knew all these dead people. "How'd you know?"

"That bastard had another ch-" Nico's eyes widened and he clamped his hand over his mouth. "Shit…" he muttered softly to himself.

He cleared his throat, and Will quickly forgot what Nico had said. "Well...my dad's name is Hades, and let's be honest, not many people have the name Hades, so i put two and two together i guess. When i was young, my dad admitted-no, more like he informed me he'd had an affair with another lady and had a child. And...my dad's dead as well."

Will mouthed an 'ah', and didn't probe or anything. Nico just breathed fondly at the memory. "It's not that bad really. My dad hated me."

Will frowned, walking a little closer to Nico. He had to admit, it was getting a little cold. Plus he was leaning the umbrella more to Nico's side so he didn't get much coverage from the rain. "Oh. Uh...why?"

Nico went silent. Will widened his eyes. "Y-you don't have to answer if you don't want to!" He stammered awkwardly, rushing through his words.

Nico turned his eyes up to look to Will, then averted his gaze again. "I'm not uncomfortable with it. I just never quite told anyone other than my brother about it before."

Nico's shoulders slumped forward. "My dad always wanted a daughter. But then after i was conceived and they went for a scan, they found out i was a boy."

"Huh. I thought people nowadays wanted boys."

Nico shrugged. "Maybe, but Hades didn't. So he went ahead to abort me."

"Abort you?" Will looked at Nico in confusion. "But you are...very much alive to me?"

Nico appeared startled, and looked like he began to trace back his words. "I mean, he _tried_ to abort me." He straightened up. "It didn't work. I was still born in the end."

Will laughed, but something about it seemed a little...odd. "Right. You aren't dead or anything."

Nico had a troubled look on his face. "Definitely. I'm not dead. I never died."

The bus pulled up at the bus stop ahead. Will momentarily pushed all his concerns to the back of his mind. The bus came once every thirty or so minutes, and missing this one would set the both of them back by a lot of time.

Will grabbed Nico's sleeve, ignoring the cold and Nico's confused yelps, and pulled them towards the bus. He pointed forward.

"The bus! It's here!" Will shouted while running. Covering himself with the umbrella was a forgotten thought, and the rain dripped onto his eyelashes and blurred his vision. Above him, there was a loud clap of thunder. He jumped, but continued on forward.

"Forget it Will! William, I mean! We're not gonna make it!" Nico shouted after him. Will let go of Nico and ran forward, knocking on the glass door just as the bus was about to move off.

The doors opened, and the rush of cool air that greeted him blew threw his soaked clothes. He shuddered from the cold. It was no good. He only had one other shirt, and that was that perspiration filled one. He began to pant again, but held the door open for Nico.

Nico gave him an absurd face, then reached out to take both his and Will's bus cards to pay the fare.

The driver waited for the boys to collect themselves, then drove on. Will stumbled backwards, but still thanked the driver.

They found a nice by the window at the back of the bus. Will closed his umbrella and tossed it on the seat, along with his bag. Nico sat down quietly, and left some space for Will, who happily sat down beside him.

"Look at you, all drenched," Nico commented. And removed Will's hoodie from his body. He handed it over to Will. Will accepted it.

Nico's face took on a flaming red hue. "You know, you should probably change out of that shirt. You could catch a cold."

Will understood what that meant. "U-uh yeah…" Will looked around for any other person, but it was just the two of them on the upper deck.

"If you don't mind, i'm just gonna change right...here…" Will trailed off, looking for cues of discomfort from Nico. Nico just gave a flustered nod and curtly turned to look outside of the window.

Will could still see Nico from the reflection of the mirror, but pointing that out would only prove to be a waste of time.

"Are you done yet?"

"Right. I'm changing now."

Will turned the opposite side and quickly took off his drenched shirt. Nico held a hand out behind him, offering to take the shirt. "It's going to be a hassle to hold on to the shirt and change," Nico convinced.

Will just dropped the shirt into Nico's waiting palm and put on his sweater. The dry fabric clung to his moist skin. He tried to shake the droplets of rain out of his hair, but as expected, it was to no avail.

Will turned back, and tapped Nico's shoulder. Nico sighed. "Why are you even here? Didn't i say it was enough to walk me to the bus stop?"

Will bristled. "If i didn't help you flag the bus, you wouldn't have gotten on."

Nico scowled, and Will simply shrugged. "Well then, where're you going?"

"Hazel's," Nico answered shortly. Will nodded slowly.

"Okay. Anyway…" Will reached over to take back his shirt from Nico's hands. While stuffing it into his bag, he asked. "As you were saying? You said your dad tried to abort you…"

"Yeah. It...failed. But i probably did something really bad, or something, because even though i survived, my mom's womb had to be removed due to complications."

"Oh." Will avoided saying much. "I'm really sorry about that."

"Not like you could've done anything. Also, this is just an assumption. I'm not hundred percent sure." Nico rubbed his head tiredly. "And this assumption is full of loopholes...but, i think it should be right."

"Loopholes? Where?"

Nico shook his head, refusing to say anymore before he began to doze off. His head fell back onto the headrest. His hands crossed instinctively across his lap.

Will sighed, beckoning the curiosity in him to burn down. He looked at Nico's sleeping figure. His closed eyelids fluttered slightly every now and then, and his nose twitched.

Will clenched his fists. No, he couldn't. Such thoughts couldn't run amok in his head. He shivered, a twinge of fear gnawing at him. His eyes strayed towards Nico, his head now tilting in his direction. He laughed to himself bitterly.

Had he forgotten how he and Jason parted ways?

…

_Will came home to find Jason's luggages packed up and outside the house. Without a second thought, he ran into the house to search for Grace. He didn't have to look for long._

_He saw him standing along the corridor, on the phone, contacting someone. Jason looked very much disappointed, and a little angry._

_Jason caught Will's eye, and he held one hand up to tell Will to wait a while while he wrapped up the call. Jason's eyes narrowed._

" _What do you mean by that? I don't care that you're five minutes away." Jason hissed. Will's eyes turned to slits. He'd never heard Jason raise his voice even a little. Most of the time, Will was the one ranting, being angry, and...expressing negative emotions, basically._

_He could hardly recall the last time he'd seen Jason yell or shout at anyone. To everyone, he was a patient boy. Seeing him flare up like this scared Will._

_Jason finally put down the call. Will strode to his side, and tried to glance at the phone from behind him to see who he'd been calling. To his surprise, Jason turned sharply, and blocked Will's view._

" _Who was that?" Will tried to ask tenderly. This whole situation was making him anxious. Why were Jason's luggages outside? Where was he going? Had he done something wrong? Will quickly ran through his memory to figure out the possible causes of his distress._

" _Will. I…" Jason began to explain. The rest of it was drained out by a vague ring in his ear. Will ignored it, running his fingers through his hair. What was the cause of this? What was it? He started to pace back and forth along the house-his house (Naomi had migrated to Texas, leaving the apartment in New York to Will and Jason). He knew he was beginning to panic._

_He could feel it. Jason reached out to touch him, but Will shoved his hand away. What was he doing? His head screamed. Why was he hurting Jason like this?_

" _Will, Thalia is coming to bring me with her to her home. I'm sorry i didn't tell you this before i-"_

" _Shut up!" Will shouted on impulse. He regretted it immediately when he saw the hurt look on Jason's face. The room in front of him was spinning, and his thoughts were fuzzy._

_He turned to Jason. Jason placatingly put his hands on Will's shoulders. "Will, what are you thinking? I never said we had to break up. I'm just saying that it's going to be difficult to sustain a long-distance relationship."_

_Will couldn't understand. He was overreacting. Calm down, he told himself. But his mouth acted before the message from his brain could get across._

" _I know, I know," he snapped. It was like his nervous system was detached from the rest of his body._

_Uncontrollably so. As of late, he'd been acting weirdly. He could tell, from his dropping grades and all. Perhaps he should've really gone to see the doctor earlier._

_Jason held the sides of his shoulders. Will faintly heard a car horn from the outside, and Will saw a girl emerge to come knock on the door. Will pushed Jason away, and Jason hardly resisted._

_The girl, Thalia, he presumed, opened the door, and grabbed Jason's hand. Back and forth, Will saw them argue. Jason's finger pointed towards Will. Thalia's head turned, but with a blank stare, her eyes barely showed any emotion. Thalia took Jason by the wrist and pulled him outside._

" _Thalia! He's having a panic attack, you can't just leave him there!" Jason yelled at Thalia. Will managed a shaky smile. Yes...Jason was always protective of him. If Jason ever shouted or fought with anyone, it was for him._

_He began to sweat. Why? He didn't know why. Everything just felt so...hot and stuffy. He vigorously fanned himself. He tried to recall what he'd learned in school about this._

_Hyperventilating. He should. Take a deep. Breath. Breathe. Calm down._

" _He'll be fine!" Thalia insisted. Will wished he could say the same._

" _Jase…" Will called. "Jase!" He shouted again. Jason wrestled free from Thalia, much to her protests, and ran towards him._

" _What is it?" Will tried in vain to look for the comfort he'd once sought in Jason's blue eyes. In a sense, it reflected his own._

" _Did you ever love me?" He began to pant really heavily. His hair began to stick to his forehead._

" _Will, i-"_

" _Jason we got to go! Dad's gonna kill the both of us!" Jason's face turned extremely grim. Will just gave Jason a look. He couldn't breathe, and had this feeling he was going to black out soon._

_But he was insistent on hearing Jason's answer._

" _Will, i…i..." Will's felt his heart shatter like glass. Ahhh...so that was what this was all about. He knew he was becoming rather delusional, or maybe he was overthinking. No, he was probably jumping to conclusions. Or...or...or…_

" _I understand," Will breathed out solemnly, and sounded surprisingly stable. Jason's face contorted into a very pained look, but either way, he let go of him. Will felt himself fall back against the wall._

_At first, his head hurt, but slowly, it faded to nothing._

…

Will cringed at the memory. He remembered how a few hours later he found Kayla and Austin hovering over him. Kayla had carried him to his bed, and Austin was busy trying to dial Jason.

Will had physically stopped Austin then, but he'd secretly wanted Austin to ignore him and call, which...he didn't. The following day when he returned to school, he'd found that Jason had been transferred to some other school in Rome.

That was when he decided he wanted to take a break from the band, and music in general. Jason used to be kind of part of the band. When Austin was busy or couldn't make it, Jason often filled in the guitar parts. As far as he knew, Jason never had to replace him; when Will was sick, Jason liked to tend to him til he recovered.

Will said he hated it, and that it was embarrassing for him because he was a medical student, but Will secretly enjoyed it.

Will felt that it would distract him from being able to fully concentrate on playing well, so he suggested a disbandment, but seeing that they still came back together ultimately, 'hiatus' seemed like a better fitting word now.

Will had to be honest with himself. Just now, he didn't ask Nico to play because he was solely interested in his line of work. He'd wanted to see if Nico could somewhat fill the void that'd been there since Jason left.

Of course, Will understood that was selfish of him. Either way, he still understood that Nico was his own person, as was Jason. All this while, he'd thought so much about how Nico was like Jason.

Will had used his dropping grades as an excuse in place of his heartbreak for the halting of the band's activities. He'd only thought about himself, and how he didn't want to have to think about Jason. He never gave a thought about how Austin or Kayla were feeling.

Regret washed over him like a wave. Kayla and Austin had been such good friends to him he'd always thought of them as being always there for him when he needed them. And in the process, he'd forgotten that like they'd been there for him, he should've been there for them as well. They, like him, were human too.

He sank into his seat, and moved in a little closer to Nico. Thinking so much made him exhausted. His eyelids slowly began to shut.


	6. Chapter 6

_That day after Will suggested the disbandment, he'd paid a visit to the psychiatrist. He'd gotten a diagnosis, and had been put on some pills. Perhaps nobody ever noticed, but he still had a lot of insecurities himself, and Jason leaving him just added on to worsen his mental health._

_Will'd been worried. He always worried. He'd fretted and fussed. Paranoia was akin to his second nature. He'd been a coward, a selfish coward._

_He had been, and still was. Of course, medication did their work. But matters of the heart weren't so easily solved. Not by pills, or friends, or family. They never were. Not after a month, two months, three months, a year, or five, maybe sometimes even ten. Perhaps never._

_That was why Will had not wanted to find love ever again. Because that day when Jason left, it suddenly struck Will that he'd never see Grace around his home, and he could never ever find him around the school again. He would never have those two strong arms wrap ever so gently around his waist, and no more warm, loving kisses would be planted on his cheeks and forehead._

_He was a light sleeper. He didn't know if anyone knew that, if Jason knew that. But every night, after Jason came home from a school project, or some part-time job, he would always feel a kiss graze his skin, and a soft murmur of "I love you" into his ear. It was comforting. But why? Why did he have to go ask Jason if he loved him? What was that all about? All it had done was drive his boyfriend away._

_He'd sent many messages to Jason, saying he was sorry for acting up, for being a burden, for having that panic attack, for even having the thought that Jason never loved him._

_He knew Jason would have taken it badly. He knew it. He knew it very well, and yet he dealt his card. And he did. Not once did Grace reply to his messages. Maybe what hurt Will more was that he could see Jason had read them._

_From messages like "how are u?" and "hey grace how's ur new home?" to messages like "i'm sorry", "can we get back together please?" and the occasional "you know i love u right?"._

_There was never a response. Sometimes he could see Jason was typing a message, but every time all the same the message would be deleted and Jason would go offline. Will even sometimes stopped his medication so he could tell Jason he was not feeling good in hopes of Jason rushing over to come help him._

_One time this had happened, Will ended up passing out and Hazel found him lying on the floor of his corridor. That was the time that brought Hazel and Will really got closer. Along with the death of Maria, Will and Hazel found that they had each other to go through tough times with._

_Austin and Kayla were like Will's towers of support then. They often came over to his dorm room to check on him, make sure he was taking his meds, helping him clean up his place. He knew how important it was to regularly take his medication, of course. It was expected of him as a med school student._

_Maybe from the doctor's point of view, it was easy. A piece of cake. But as the one who was hurt and wounded, Will finally understood why all those people on television always tried to flush their pills in the toilet. He could admit he'd almost done it too. The only thing stopping him was knowing that Kayla and Austin, or even Hazel would pay the same amount for him when he went to the doctor again._

_One day, there was a call from Naomi. So she'd heard about Jason and her son. She asked him how he was coping, whether or not he was okay, and if she should head back to New York to be there for him. She asked him if he still had enough money from what she'd left him, and if she needed to send more over. Will didn't dare admit he'd spent almost all of it on his doctor's appointments._

_Will lied about it all. "I'm fine," he'd claimed, sticking a smile on his lips. "You don't need to worry about me mum." Naomi was crying on the other end of the phone, Will could hear it. He felt the own walls he'd built around himself crumble._

_He cried too. It started soft, like a hiccup, then tears just fell like raindrops from the sky. "I'm not fine mum," he confessed between sobs. "I want somebody to love me…it hurts so bad mum, it hurts…" His voice came out thick, and an image of Jason's warm gaze upon him flashed through his mind. A cry tore through from the back of his throat._

_He said he'd try never to cry over Jason again. Never once again over Jason. It was difficult. Very difficult. Though he stopped trying to text Jason, every once in a while he'd receive an instagrams notification that Jason had posted._

_A girl from his older posts began to show up more frequently. And then one day, Will realised that the past few posts never once excluded her. He'd kind of expected Jason to find someone new, but not that fast, or that easily. He hated that he was the only one so hung up about their break up._

_He found her account. Piper. Piper Mclean. Daughter of a once-upon-a-time billionaire who'd recently almost fell into bankruptcy. Needless to say, Will was quite bitter about it, but he quickly got over it. He wanted to be happy for Jason and Piper._

_Obviously, it disturbed him that one time Jason posted a picture of the both of them locking eyes, hands on each other's waists. He immediately regretted swiping to see the next few slides. A kiss, followed by another, and another. It never seemed to end._

_Will vomited. The thought that those same lips had once been on his made him nauseous. Simply revolting. His throat felt dry from all that vomiting. He called in sick the next day._

_He ended up finally making the decision to unfollow Jason. He knew that if he requested the next time to follow him, he most likely wouldn't get accepted. But it didn't really matter anymore. He didn't know how Jason may have changed, and if this Jason was the same one he knew before._

_The next time he went to his psychiatrist, for the first time, he really listened intently. He took his pills regularly. Over time the frequency of the need to take the pills decreased. At first it was three times a day, then two, then one, and finally, just once in a while, as and when he needed it._

_He was doing it for himself, and for Naomi, as well as all the other people who cared about him, he convinced himself. Perhaps one could say he'd pretty much gotten over Grace, but it still hurt. Everytime Will thought about it, it reminded him not only of his time with Jason, but also how much he struggled because of him._

_Like everyone else, his life wasn't perfect. Neither was he. An imperfect life for an imperfect boy. It seemed it was only fit. His life was in a downward spiral. Maybe soon, someone would come to pull him out of it._

_Maybe, the person was already there._

Illllllllll

Will was jolted awake by a pair of arms around his shoulders.

"Hey. It's the stop."

Will yawned. He was hoping to catch up on some sleep. The previous night, he'd stayed up thinking about the band's matters that he'd hardly noticed it was already almost daybreak.

"Yeah thanks." Will pulled himself up from the seat. Boy, why was his brain wired to have dreams like that all the time? It was just like a system made to remind him that he was just probably faking his recovery.

Truth to be told, he didn't know if he'd recovered. If he remembered correctly from class, nobody ever really did move on from a mental disorder. It was always lurking somewhere in the corners of their mind.

Then of course, as most fiction goes, when the worst time possible comes, the mental disorder is triggered and the person has a relapse. Or if they're lucky (or not), they die before something triggers it again.

Will ambled down the steps of the bus, and paid the fee as he got off. Nico was a few steps ahead of him. He sighed, trudging his footsteps. He was so, so tired.

Nico looked uneasily back at Will, seemingly wanting to say something, but yet not really sure about it. Nico scratched the back of his hand, and his collar.

"Uhm...am i walking too fast for you?" His voice sounded kind of strained, and pained, like he was forcing the words out of his mouth. Something about those words seemed familiar.

He finally placed where he'd heard it before. He vaguely remembered Will(2) being asked it before, by a friend. He as well, had an odd look on his face. Like some bad memory was linked to it. He'd answered with a shake of his head.

Will shrugged at the recollection. "No," he said.

Nico took a deep breath, then gestured to his side. "Then...w-would you like to walk by my side?"

Will was dumbfounded, and speechless. Nico turned a deep shade of red. "Um! I mean, you don't have to! I just think it might be awkward for you."

"Uh...yeah. Sure." Will took a few quick steps forward to Nico's side, and they walked on. It was just a few metres away-the shop, that is.

Nico forced a smile on his face as they came to a stop outside the shop. Will caught Hazel's eye, and they gave each other a wave.

"Well, we're here. You could go now. Thanks for walking me here," Nico muttered, clinging to his bag. His face was flushed. Will hesitated.

"Right. Of course. I should get going." He fumbled around his bag, and proceeded to whip out a sheet of paper on which he'd sloppily jotted down Nico's number. "Ah yes, i have your number already."

Nico tilted his head to show his acknowledgement. They stood there, facing each other awkwardly.

"See you tomorrow," the both of them said in unison abruptly. They tensed.

"Yeah." Will felt his fingers twitch stiffly. They both looked like sticks, neither really moving.

Will took a tentative step forward, then when Nico didn't flinch, he took another. Will lifted his arms up robotically, and forced them around Nico's body gently, enveloping him in a hug. He'd always done this with Jason. Always. Except that one time Jason left once and for all.

His stiff body loosened up, and he gave Nico a warm squeeze. He felt waves of heat sting his eyes. Nico's body felt so much like Jason's, and memories he'd not intended for begin to come back.

Nico didn't do anything that Will'd thought he would. He didn't pull away, he didn't flinch, he didn't say a single word. But slowly, Will felt two somewhat stringy arms wrap back around his back.

"Hey...are you okay?" Nico whispered into his ear. He sounded a little short of breath. Will almost forgot Nico was really small.

Will just wordlessly let go, a blush rising up his cheeks.

Nico laughed it off. "I'm sorry. I'm not really good at this kind of situation."

Will nodded, not quite daring to turn to see if Hazel was staring. "If you need anything, you know my number." Will smiled, ignoring the tears that were quickly drying up.

"Likewise." Nico nodded, and giving Will one last look, he turned to enter the shop.

Will just waved goodbye at the retreating figure.

…

Will strum on his guitar like his life depended on it for the rest of the session. He was troubled. Very troubled.

What was he thinking just now? Just hugging Nico like that. He was obviously so uncomfortable. Will tilted his head to the left and right, hearing the satisfying pop sound as he did so.

"Yo Will!" Austin called after Will after the practice session. Will jumped.

"Right!" He coughed. "Good practice today. I'll treat you tomorrow. I'm kinda urgent to go home today. Sorry about it."

Austin looked at Will warily. Like he could already sense something was wrong. Will tensed up under Austin's scrutinising gaze. With Austin always acting so mild and kind, Will was caught off guard by his sudden piercing look.

Austin just raised his eyebrows, then nodded. "Alright." He shot Will a more worried look this time. "Nothing's wrong, right?"

Will shook his head. Even his friends were tired of his shit, and Will couldn't blame them. "No, Austin, nothing's wrong."

Will took his phone out from his pocket. "If there's anything wrong, i can always call you, Kayla, Hazel, or Nico, okay? You don't need to fuss over me."

"Really? Cos you kinda look a little pale."

Will's hands flew up to touch his face, and he felt it. His forehead was burning up quick, and his fingers felt cold like ice. He brushed it off.

"Yeah i'm fine, Aus. Just chill." He forced out a laugh. "If I faint or anything, I still have all of your numbers on the speed dial."

Kayla ducked out from behind the wall. "Austin and I are gonna stay back to practice a while. You may have gotten back your skills but us peasants aren't that much of natural talents."

She pushed her hair back behind her ears, then put her hands on her hips. "You should go home first. You don't look too good."

Kayla skipped over to Will's side, and placed a hand up to his forehead. He recoiled. Her hand was freezing. Or his head was just boiling or something.

A concerned frown took over her lips. "I knew it. Running a fever now huh?"

Will hesitantly put a hand on his forehead. He narrowed his eyebrows in concentration, making a smart guess. "About 101 fahrenheit (approx. 38.3°c)"

Kayla wasted no time in pushing the boy out of the studio. She shoved a few things into his hands; some water, a few coins, and...more water.

"Kayla…" Will whined. She shook her head firmly.

"No. Go home. I'm not going to be responsible for your sick ass." He pouted.

"Fine."

…

The next day, Will woke up to the sound of his alarm. His head was pounding, and his vision was spinning. He stabilised himself as he was about to stand up, but he immediately regretted it and fell back onto his bed.

In his daze, he looked at his bed. Soaking wet with sweat. He groaned. Had he forgotten to switch on the fan again last night? He looked up, but the fan was still oscillating.

He tilted his head (not too much as it could make his headache worsen) in confusion. It was unusually hot in his room. Ignoring his spinning head, he stumbled his way into the bathroom.

He stripped himself of his clothes, and turned on the tap, letting it run over the ridges of his body. Man he was so tired. He felt the water flow down his back, and he turned slowly, bending as he did so, till he was squating on the cool tiles of the bathroom.

His legs were so weak he didn't think he could stand up. The water faucet looked so high up and out of reach now that he was on the ground, and he couldn't make himself get up to off it.

He sighed, letting his body fall to one side of the bathroom. A sigh escaped his lips. He knew he couldn't stay like this forever. He still had school, and then to pick up Nico from the library and after that head over to band practice.

Still, even though he had to get to school, it didn't mean he couldn't be lazy while preparing.

From the sitting position he was in, he reached up to fumble for his soap. He washed up the rest of himself while sitting down. Every part he touched of his body, it was burning hot.

He briefly wondered how high his temperature was now. Trusting his gut feeling, he brought a hand up to approximate his temperature. 103 in fahrenheit (approx. 39.4°c).

He shuddered. His body temperature was always higher than the average male teen, but 103°f? That was unusual, even for him.

Despite that, he forced himself to get up. He bent forward, then straightened his knees, swallowing from the effort it took. Oh gods.

He made his way to the sink, letting his jaw go slack just in case he felt like vomiting any time soon. He blinked rapidly, then lazily lifted his eyes to look in the mirror.

Just as he thought. Pale, greyish skin, white-ish lips and an overall, extremely poor complexion. He wondered for a moment if his vision was just covered in a film of dust.

He pinched his skin, then looked over to his toothbrush, trying to use his will (no pun intended) to get it to somehow move towards him. As Will had expected, it didn't work.

After getting done and over with his morning routine, with painful slowness, he threw himself onto the couch. He picked up his phone. Nine missed calls from Nico.

In spite of the condition he was in, he managed a low chuckle. Huh, since Nico had gotten a phone he was a little too excited with it yeah?

Will knocked his head in hopes of his headache fading away, but it didn't do much. He let loose an exasperated sigh. He decided to call Nico back.

"Hey Neeks."

"Hey."

A moment of silence.

"You called me?"

"Uh yeah...but it's nothing now. I got it solved."

Will waited for Nico to carry on, which to Will's utmost surprise, he did.

"Are you okay?"

Will hardly feigned his surprise.

"Uh actually, no. Not really."

He could hear Nico bristle at the other end of the line. Will felt the breath get caught in his chest.

"You're sick aren't you? From yesterday's rain," Nico deadpanned.

"I think so."

"And you're planning to go to school."

"Of course."

"And band practice later."

"Yeah."

He heard Nico sigh. "I thought so."

"Well then," Nico inhaled. "Come over to the library after school."

"Mhm. I was planning to."

"Alright i'm not going to hold you up any longer. Bye."

Without waiting for Will to give so much as a response, Nico hung up. Will didn't have the energy to call back.

He felt like crap. He looked at the time on his phone. About an hour to get to school.

He dug into his bag and took some medication, popping it into his mouth as he downed it with water. Over-the-counter pills weren't exactly the best idea, but considering that he didn't want the whole world to know he was sick, he decided it was probably the most he could settle for.


	7. Chapter 7

_Having a fever sucks. Thanks._

_William_

_Solace_

Will sprawled his hands across the table, the feeling to lay his head down on its surface overwhelming him. The teacher clicked her tongue at him as she passed by, shaking her head in resignation.

Kayla rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here? Didn't I tell you to go rest until you were feeling better?"

"Kayla…" Will complained. "School's already ended, so can't we just drop the topic already?"

"Solace! This is exactly why we can't just leave you alone at home." Austin sighed, exasperation clear in his voice. He narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of the guitar by Will's side. "And you're planning to go for band practice?"

Will nodded meekly, holding back a sneeze as the two carried on with their nagging.

"William Solace! You know band practice is more taxing than school, and look at you!" Will looked at himself. He was sweating, but cold, and touching his face was like putting ice on a pan. "You look awful."

Will gave a half-hearted scowl. "Fine! I won't play then. I'll just sit by the side." He crossed his arms across his chest to show he wasn't budging any further.

Austin tried to further convince Will, but Kayla just stopped him. She gave him a crossed look, and pulled Austin back to his seat.

"Thanks Kayla," Will breathed with a smile.

Kayla didn't give any form of answer back. Instead, she just grabbed Austin's arm and walked off with an irritated scowl. Will immediately wiped the smile off his face.

Well now he was screwed.

"Kayla c'mon. Don't be mad at me." Will called after Kayla. Kayla feigned not hearing a single thing, swinging her bag behind her back.

Austin wriggled out of her grip. "Kayla, y'know Will's not going to give up."

Kayla snarled at him, giving him a glare. He winced under her eyes. Her nose twitched, and without looking back at either of them, she stormed off, slamming the class door as she left.

The entire class fell into silence. The ones who hadn't left yet looked between each other.

"Did Kayla just…"

"Yeah."

Katie got up from her seat and was about to go after Kayla, but Will grabbed her arm to stop her. The sudden action sent a nauseating feeling to rise up his throat. He'd originally suspected he'd fallen sick just from running in the rain the day before, but he was pretty sure it wouldn't have caused nausea.

Katie shot him a funny look, then she arched her eyebrows. "Hey Solace...you're kinda hot."

"I'm taken," Will said automatically without much thought.

"What?" Katie asked. "Uh, not like that. I mean…" She squatted beside his seat, and looked up at his face. She paled, and Will could only guess he looked awful. Will watched droplets of his sweat drip down on the floor.

Austin looked doubtfully at the two of them. He awkwardly gestured towards where Kayla had left from. "I'll go get Kayla back. I don't think she meant anything by it."

Austin rushed through his words. He looked really anxious by the situation, which wasn't helping Will at all. Will slightly shook his head to prevent any more sudden movements, but that saturated vision stubbornly refused to leave.

"No. I shouldn't have been so insistent. Go try to appease her."

Austin pursed his lips, calming down a little. "You really are something, Solace. Trying to always be the calm one in such situations."

Will frowned, feeling kinda light-headed. He even remotely felt his breathing picking up. He further sprawled his upper body across the table. "I'm not calm. I just don't have the freaking energy to be agitated right now."

Austin sighed, then slung his back onto his shoulders and sped off towards Kayla.

Katie beckoned Conner and Travis over. Will rested his head on the table as a shudder ran up his spine. Katie forced both boys to put their palms on his forehead. Though reluctant at first, they both began to rest their hands on his forehead for longer periods of time.

Katie clicked her tongue. "Alright alright! That's enough. I asked you to feel it once. Just once."

Travis drew back his hand from Will's forehead. "I mean yeah...but girl, he is actually burning up."

Connor nodded. "Should i call for the professor?"

Will coughed. "If you want to call anyone, at least ask me. And no, I don't want some adults to fuss over me."

Katie drew her eyebrows together. "Will, as much as i consider you a friend, i can't exactly stay here. My mom's gonna come fetch me, and so are the Stolls'."

Will reached into his pocket to fumble about for his phone. "I know. Speed dial number one."

Katie did so without question. The person picked up on the first ring. Katie covered the mic.

"What do i say?"

"Tell him to come here."

"Right…" Katie spoke hesitantly into the mic. "Will says to come to his school," she said in a small voice.

Kayla covered the mic again. "Does he know where this is?" Will just shrugged. He hadn't eaten during break time; he was too tired too, and now he just felt his energy deplete. He could swear he'd never felt this tired before. He couldn't even remember the last time he was physically sick. Probably about six years ago.

"Do you know where his school is?" Katie asked, getting less and less timid as she spoke. She listened a few seconds, then replied. "The school is called HB. No 'school' or 'institution' behind it. Just HB."

She nodded, and then put the phone down. "He said he's on the way. And that not to move anywhere. 'Just tell him to stay where he is' were his exact words, actually."

Will grunted, forcing his eyelids to stay open. What kind of shitty medication had he taken in the morning? It had absolutely no effect whatsoever.

He saw Will(2) pass by outside the corridors, and he waved him over. Will(2) gave his cheery smile at first, but it quickly vanished.

"Hey, you alright?" Will(2) asked.

"Haha...not really," Will admitted. "I pissed off Kayla and Austin."

Will(2) frowned. "I didn't mean it like that. I meant you. Are you alright?"

"No. Not at all." Will rolled his head over, then rolled it back. Apparently when he was sick there was a good side and a bad side. Lying on the bad side made him feel like throwing up. "Is this how dying feels like?"

Katie gave him a look of concern. She turned to Will(2). "A friend is coming here to pick him up. I really have to go now, and so do Travis and Connor. Do you mind…"

Will(2) nodded, understanding immediately. "No problem. I'll wait till his friend is here."

Katie smiled gratefully, then ran off, dialing a number on her phone, and Travis and Connor followed her.

Will(2) looked at Will, displeased. "Dude…" He shook his head and reached into his bag. From it, he took out a towel and bottle, then proceeded to moisten the towel.

He handed it to Will, shaking it as he did so. Will nodded, then put it on his forehead, and lay back down to his resting position. A heat rose up the back of his mouth, and he pushed it down. That was really all he wanted to focus his energy on.

He was already beginning to fall asleep, when he heard someone burst into the classroom. Nico was here!

"Nico!" He called out, not opening his mouth too wide fearing he would _actually_ puke. Nico looked like he was about to break into a grin, but then he froze. He looked over to Will(2).

He scowled at Will(2). "You…"

Will looked to Will(2), who was looking as surprised as Nico. Will(2) took a step back. "I-i was just here to take care of him."

Nico didn't go on to say a thing, but instead, just rushed to Will's side. He gingerly took both of Will's arms and wrapped it around his neck. Nico bent his knees slightly, then swooped Will's legs off the ground.

Nico grunted, but straightened his legs without complaint. Will weakly rested his head on Nico's back, his head fitting nicely into the space between Nico's shoulder blades. For a second, Will thought he could hear Nico's heartbeat, and he blushed.

Nico jumped slightly, to get Will more supported on his back. He turned to look behind him as much as he could. "Geez, Will. Your skins really hot."

Will managed a chuckle. Nico turned to Will(2), an indescribable look in his eyes. Will just shut his eyes, too tired to look any longer. He opted for just listening instead.

"You need me to carry him instead?" Will(2) was speaking.

"I got this. Just get his guitar." The vibration from Nico's back spread over WIll's head. "Reyna's in a cab outside. Bring it there."

"Reyna? She's here as well?"

"Yes. I found her." There was a long moment of silence, before Nico began to walk. Will wanted to fall asleep, but he knew he would slap himself later if he didn't listen on.

"Thank you, Will." Will smiled, but Will(2) answered instead.

"No problem." Nico didn't appear too fazed, so Will figured the compliment wasn't for him. "We should exchange phone numbers."

"Maybe."

"Are you mad at me?"

"I...i don't know. I guess I'm supposed to?"

A sigh from one of them, and Will could guess who it came from.

"So...you still skate?"

"Don't be so friendly with me."

"So you _are_ mad at me."

Silence.

"I have the right to. Doesn't mean i am," Nico somewhat snapped.

"Okay."

Will felt Nico speed up, even if just a little. Will wrapped his arms tighter around Nico, though careful not to strangle him. Based on the hug he'd given him yesterday, he had especially made sure not to use too much strength.

They finally made it to the cab, and Nico gently tried to lower him into the cab. A girl inside looked him over, and even though Will could easily slip into a sleep, he shifted a little uncomfortably to the side.

Will(2) put Will's guitar into the boot, and Will wanted to complain, saying the guitar could spoil, but Nico already had it covered, taking it out and slinging it around his tiny body.

Will vaguely saw them exchanging numbers, but by the time Nico was in the cab, Will was already asleep.

…

Will opened his eyes slightly, feeling a cool towel on his forehead. He shifted..

"You're up," Nico said.

"Yeah," Will didn't bother to sit up. Instead, he turned to the other side to face Nico. "Where am i?"

"My home."

"Figured." The entire house looked like something Nico would live in. A small, kinda messy place. Random papers here and there, but overall, it wasn't too bad. At least nowhere near the worst he'd seen. Like Kayla's place.

"Go back to sleep. It's only been fifteen minutes."

Will smiled. Focusing on something seemed to make his vision less….spin-y.

"Really?" Nico mindlessly wrung a towel in his hand.

"Yeah. Since we reached here." Will let out a soft playful laugh.

"Would you sing for me?" Nico choked.

"Sing? I can't sing."

"C'mon, Nico...You literally busk for a living."

"I'm not going to." Nico said stubbornly. Will pouted.

"Stop it. You can beg me to, but no means no."

Will sighed. "Fine."

"Yes, now go to sleep." Nico pulled the blanket over Will.

"One last question."

Nico exhaled heavily, speaking as he did so. "Go on."

"Who's that girl?"

"It's the girl I asked you if you'd seen before. Yesterday when I was at Hazel's, I asked her. She said she'd seen her before and gave me her number. We had a meal together, and now she's living here with me."

"Oh ok." Will felt sleep trying to take over him again. He turned over to the other side, and snuggled in nearer to Nico's side. Nico turned his back on him, using Will's body as some sort of backrest.

"Just go and sleep while i talk. You don't have to listen," Nico said suddenly. Will pretended to be asleep. Nico went on.

"You know, I probably don't look like it, but I once had this person who i really loved." Nico curled his fingers over each other, in a prayer-like hand position. Will felt his hands clench.

"Maybe you don't know, but i have a really weak will. I'd tell myself something, but i'd end up never doing it." Nico's voice was so soothing, like music to his ears, a lullaby, but something about the way Nico was heading with this topic made Will feel ill at ease.

"So...i grew up in this really perfect place. Like...like...heaven. Every part of my life was taken care of, and I didn't have to worry. It was like living a life of royalty."

Will secretly wondered how that felt. Living a perfect life.

"Well it was kinda perfect, but not really? Like, the place was really good, but my family was really bad. I didn't have a mom, and the brother i'd grown up with wasn't even my 'real' brother. My father was also absent from my life for a good seven years, and I really hated it."

"Anyway, back on topic, my father was a really garbage one, for a person who had a child. I like to think I turned out pretty well for someone who had him as a parent."

 _Of course,_ Will thought. Nobody could've guessed he had a horrible parentage.

"But thing is, my brother was even better. My father loved him more than he loved me. But I suppose I could understand why. My brother was the epitome of perfection."

Will highly doubted so, especially after seeing Nico.

"He woke up early to do the dishes, was an awesome singer, an archer, got perfect grades, looked like a literal god and...i don't know. I can't remember. I didn't really like to spend time with him."

_Hm, fair point. Nobody wanted to always be compared to their brother._

"But i can't say i hate him. Actually, I loved him. Like, I _actually_ loved him."

Will raised his eyebrow.

"I know you probably aren't listening, but the order is so messed up. But...anyway, i'm kinda gay."

Will couldn't stop himself this time. He snorted. Nico flinched, then sat up properly.

"You were actually listening?"

Will nodded. "Well yeah, of course. Listening to you makes me feel better."

Nico frowned. "I don't think that's how it works."

"Maybe not conventionally, but for me it sure does."

Nico stared at him a little too long, then his face flushed, and he looked away. Will gestured for Nico to go on.

"You were saying?"

"I'm...gay?" Will felt his heart soar.

"You know-what's your surname, actually?"

"Di Angelo." Will lifted the corners of his lips, ignoring how dry they felt.

"You know, di Angelo, whoever won your heart was so lucky."

"What?" Will shrugged.

"I-D-K. You just seem like someone everyone would want to marry. If they were interested in guys that is." Nico gave a flustered hiccup.

"Everyone? Like you."

"Yeah. Kinda." Will said, putting a finger to his chin. "Like me."

"You," Nico reiterated. "would like to marry me." They stared at each other, digesting what both of them had just said.

"What?" Will launched into defensive mode. "I just think you're neat."

Nico studied him skeptically. "You think i'm neat, therefore you would like to marry me."

Will shook his head. "No! I mean, just-in general, okay? In general, I think people would like to marry you. Not necessarily me, but-yeah."

Nico started to laugh. A real laugh. "Geez! I thought you were serious!"

Will felt a bit bad, kind of guilty as well. He could feel his headache coming back, and he pulled the covers over his body even more.

"Anyway, I kinda gave up on love after that so…" Nico trailed off. After giving Will a glance, he hesitated. "I mean, at least i hope i have. Unless someone comes along."

Will felt himself being lulled back into sleep, he was too tired to say anything. Well, that's what he thought.

_You know Nico, the person who wins your heart in the future is so lucky._

"What-" Will heard Nico say just as he fell asleep.

…

Will had a relatively pleasant dream, surprisingly. Actually, not so much 'pleasant' as 'entertaining'.

He dreamt that his elementary school teacher was trying to call him while he was hacking some zombie looking pig into pieces. Then for some reason, the pig disappeared and Mr. D and Chiron were discussing some kind of punishment for Will bringing an axe to school.

Just as Will was going to be saved by the ghost of the pig he'd killed, he was awoken by someone putting a towel on his forehead. He scowled. He was kinda anticipating the part where the pig would come to his rescue.

A hand touched his forehead, and Will shifted uncomfortably.

"Don't move," a commanding voice spoke. Will shivered under the coldness of the girl's tone.

"Who are you? Where's Nico? Why are you here in place of him? What happened to him? Did he leave as well?"

The girl sighed, and dipped a towel in warm water, before wringing it dry. It looked like it was hardly wet after she wrung it.

"So many questions," she pursed her lips. "Nico's out to buy some things."

Will rested back into the bed. He physically felt somewhat better, but mentally drained. He instinctively moved his hand towards his pocket, only to find his pocket wasn't there.

That was when he realised his clothes had been changed as well. He turned red, and felt his shirt. It wasn't exactly his size, but he could still fit in it.

Come to think of it, this looked like an oversized sweater Nico would wear. He turned to the girl sitting by his side.

"Did you-uhm, how should I put this. Uh-"

The girl stared at him. "No, I didn't change you out. Nico did. He said it'd been a whole day already, and you would be more comfortable in a change of clothing."

"Oh." Will blinked. "Wait it's been a day?"

"Yeah." The girl got up, but Will wasn't done with his questions.

"Wait. What about school?"

"Nico went to your school to personally explain the situation to your teacher. Dragged me along with him." She rolled her eyes. "I seriously don't understand him sometimes. The extent he goes to for people he cares about is just-"

"Wow."

The girl shrugged. "Wow indeed."

"And you were there too?"

"The teacher was a pain, but she accepted it though. She said she wasn't going to buy a story by some random unrelated dude so Nico just lied and said he was your brother."

Will choked. "My brother?"

"Yeah. Like I said, that boy's a crazy one, but I'd have done the same for him, so i could understand where he's coming from."

Will nodded slowly. "So...you didn't really answer me earlier. What _is_ your name?"

"Reyna." She peeked outside the door as a jingling of keys was heard.

"Nico's back. He'll probably wanna talk to you, or something."

Will blinked speechlessly, and watched Reyna exit. He peered towards her figure as she gave Nico a warm hug. He squirmed, but he secretly looked like he enjoyed it.

Nico must really hate hugs, and Will just couldn't figure out why. On top of that, he had given Nico a really long and probably suffocating hug just a few days back. Not really the best idea, now that Will thought about it.

Nico knocked on the door, but still went in without waiting for Will's call. Will chuckled.

"You just came in without asking?"

Nico shrugged. "It _is_ my home."

"Well yeah but what if i was, you know, not in some appropriate attire?"

Nico just raised his eyebrows. "Where would you have gotten the "inappropriate attire" anyway?" Nico smirked. "Besides, nothing I've not seen before. I literally changed you out of your clothes, didn't Reyna say?"

He figured this kind of thing probably was not something awkward between guys, so he really didn't know why he was feeling so embarrassed by the thought of Nico seeing him...well, naked. Will grumbled. "Yeah she did."

Nico sat in the chair beside Will, and it made a low, slow creak. Will thought perhaps he should go shopping with Nico sometime to buy new furniture. Will made a discreet test of his own bed by moving a little. It let out a long whiny sound, and he cringed.

Ignoring Will's antics, Nico reached over to feel his forehead, then comparing it with his own. A little confused, Nico tilted his head and did it again.

"Huh. Can't tell a real difference. Do you feel better now then?"

Will grinned. "Yeah. Much better."

Nico smiled, a look of relief washing over him. "I was beginning to consider taking you to the hospital. You looked really awful yesterday after you fell asleep."

"Oh. Was it that bad?"

Nico nodded gravely, and for a brief moment, Will caught Reyna peeking inside before ducking out of view. But even for that moment, Will felt chills from Reyna's piercing stare.

Nico took out his phone, and clumsily keyed in a password. Will immediately recognised his number as Nico put in the password.

"You have my number as your password?" Nico cleared his throat, blinking and averting eye contact.

"Yeah...i never could remember number sequences, and your number is the only thing i remember, so...aha!" Nico made a big show of pressing on the gallery app. Will looked snoopily toward Nico, then noticed that the folder where Nico kept all his pictures of Will's sickly condition.

_Sunshine._

Will shivered at the term, but it couldn't be further from one of pleasure. _Sunshine, sunshine, sunshine._ Something about the name sounded so affectionate, Will wondered if he called anyone else by nicknames as well.

Nico handed the phone over to Will, and he scrolled through the countless number of pictures Nico had saved on his phone. Too bad they were all of him looking like shit though.

Will opened the camera app and took a selfie, then proceeded to add it to Nico's _Sunshine_ folder. He handed it back to Nico, who raised an eyebrow at him.

"What? I just thought it was really sad to see all the pictures you had of me were me being sick and looking like a whole slob."

Nico tried to keep a neutral face, but eventually broke into a grin. "Well then thank you kind sir."

_Sorry for the somewhat shorter chapter. Please do not expect regular updates but i'll try my best :") Thing is, exam periods are coming up since in my country home-based learning has ended so yeah I'm really REALLY sorry guys. I won't end this story yet tho don't worry_


	8. Chapter 8

_ Nico is some cute shit. And I’m literally in his bed right now. And he’s sleeping beside me. Gods save me. My gay heart can’t take this crap anymore. _

_ William _

_ Solace _

Will lay face up on the bed, growing more and more uncomfortable as time passed. Nico did the same, and neither moved an inch. Nico sighed.

"You have to go to school tomorrow don't you?"

Will blinked, then nodded slowly. "Yeah. I don't think i should miss that many classes. Exams are coming soon and-"

Will laughed. "You probably aren't too concerned by it. You don't have school anyway."

Nici shrugged and sat up in the darkness, a little glow emitting from his cheeks. "Well...since neither of us can sleep anyway, how about we do some studying."

Will got up. "Sure. I've some literature homework i haven't done. I suck at literature. Like hey, how am i supposed to know why William Shakespeare wrote the Merchant of Venice this way?"

Nico put a finger to his bottom lip thoughtfully. "I'm quite good at this kind of stuff actually. You want me to explain the play to you?"

Will's jaw dropped. "Oh my god yes. I do not understand anything about this play."

Nico took out the play from Will's bag and flipped it open to the first page. He wrinkled his nose. "Do you not take any care of your books?" 

Will scowled. "I hate this stupid literature shit."

Nico smacked Will's head with unexpected strength. Will rubbed his head. "Ow Neeks. What was that for?"

Nico shook his head. "Literature is important. And, books are important. Don't you spend money on books? They aren't easy to buy, you know."

Will let that one go. He knew Nico's predicament, and why he was so stuck up on this kinda stuff. 

"You know," Will added softly under his breath. "If you are ever in need of financial support, you could always ask me for help."

Nico snorted. "I'm not that desperate. Besides, Reyna and I have enough money together."

Will's ears twitched. "Reyna? What job does she hold?"

Nico made a vague gesture with his hands. "Made up some group of kids to learn self defence. We kinda used to love fighting stuff when we were young."

"Fighting? You?" Will almost laughed at the thought. Nico appeared so small and skinny, plus  _ fighting stuff,  _ as Nico described it, didn't seem to be the kinda thing parents would allow children to do.

Will stopped right there. He'd almost forgotten that Nico, so to speak, didn't have a proper upbringing. Absent father and...dead mother? He couldn't remember. 

"Anyway," Nico carried on, jabbing at the book. "William Shakespeare. Merchant of Venice." Nico smiled.

"You know something? How about you read it instead. Then tell me what you don't understand."

Will rolled over onto his stomach and put his chin on the base of his palm. With the other hand, he flipped the book open and began to read.

His eyelids began to droop from boredom. "Di Angelo isn't this a bit too dry?"

Nico ran his fingers through his hair, kinda flustered. "Honestly, this play isn't really my favourite either."

Will pushed his chest away from the bed. "How about we play a game instead?"

Nico raised his eyebrows. "A game? I've not played games in way too long."

"Come on, it's just a game. It's not gonna hurt."

"If i lose it's definitely gonna hurt my ego."

Will smirked. "Then don't."

Nico sighed. "Fine. What game is it anyway? I don't have many in my home."

Will nodded slowly. "I thought that too." He looked around for something, anything, but there really wasn't much.

An idea struck him. "I know of this game, or well, heard of it. But...if you don't want to, you don't have to, I suppose."

"What is it?"

Will quickly shook his head, disgusted at his own idea in his head. “Uh, actually...i forgot how it was played. Sorry ‘bout that,” he lied.  _ How could I have been thinking about truth or dare? That game literally always ends in one of the players daring another to kiss or make out. Gosh, Will. You’re hopeless. _

Nico raised an eyebrow, smirking. “Well actually...i have an idea. It’s a game i used to play quite a bit when i was really young.”

Will nodded quickly. Any idea was better than his. Besides, he was pretty damn interested in what Nico used to play as a child. Unfortunately for Nico, Will kinda thought he looked like he never had a childhood.

“Cool game. You start?” Will said after Nico explained.

Nico’s eyes lit up with a glint Will almost thought was illegal. “Of course. I’m so gonna whoop your ass.”

…

Will couldn’t believe it. Nico had beaten him in every single round. And Will could tell Nico was going easy on him. Will looked at his cards, then at Nico, who was lounging against the pillows, a delighted look crossing his face. Will couldn’t help but smile.

Will put his cards down in defeat. “You were gonna win anyway, weren't ya?”

Nico shrugged. “Maybe...maybe not.” 

Will lightly tapped Nico’s head. “You’re terrible at lying.”

Nico slowly packed up the cards, and glanced at his wristwatch. “It’s a little past midnight, and you have school tomorrow. You should be sleeping about now huh.”

Will felt a yawn take over him, as much as he tried to suppress it. “Yeah,” Will admitted. “I tend to sleep quite late though, so it doesn’t bother me.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “I’m not having any of your bullshit. Get to bed. I’ll pack up then switch off the lights.”

Will obediently climbed under the covers, and pulled the sheets up to under his chin. “You know, Nico, I have a feeling you swear quite a bit.”

Nico paused in his step, then turned to look at Will. “I do. A lot, actually.”

“A bad habit?” Will probed.

“Not really.” Nico moved his fingers under his chin. “I like to think it’s a form of self-expression.”

“Sure,” Will said, sarcasm dripping off his tongue. “ _ Self-expression.  _ Never heard that excuse before.”

Nico switched off the lights, causing Will to yelp in surprise. In a sort of mocking tone, Nico spoke, “Well...you appear not to have found a way to refute that point, in that sense, i’m not wrong.”

“I-” Will attempted to rebut. 

“Goodnight you little shit.”

Will sulked. “Are you gonna swear a lot now that i know about that specific form of  _ self-expression _ that you love to use?”

For a second, Will thought Nico had already gone, and was about to shut his eyes to really get to sleep.

After a moment, Nico hummed. 

“Yeah. I would think so. Good luck with that.”

…

As Will lay in his bed, he felt the time pass ever so quickly in his head. When he finally decided to check the time on his phone, he realised it’d only been five minutes since Nico left him to sleep. 

He thought about Nico’s face. A weird topic, and he knew that, but it was oddly interesting. After about a minute or so, he came to the conclusion that he’d never actually seen Nico smile.

Like a pure, genuine smile. Not sarcastic or some variation of a smirk, but a smile. Will’s mind began to think up how Nico may have looked if he smiled. Would he smile with teeth? Without? Or maybe his eye would do that weird thing they did? Did he open his eyes when he smiled, or did he close them?

Speaking of which, did Nico use some sort of chapstick? Or were his lips naturally perfect like they were? Did he eat a whole lot of special food or something? Did he use lipstick? Wait--Did he use makeup? Will hated to admit it, but guys who wore makeup was something Will loved. 

Strangely, Will himself never actually used makeup himself. He guessed it was something he enjoyed on other people, but not himself.

Will traced back his memories to check if he ever saw Nico’s eyes. Did he use eyeshadow? Or eyeliner? Or that powdery thing Will never got around finding out what it was? Come to think of it, was Nico myopic? Did he wear contacts? For some reason, the thought of Nico being blind without glasses or contacts and walking around stumbling over everything sounded pretty cute.

Wait. Hold up. Cute? Nico? Did he just think Nico was cute? In a totally gay way? Or was it just a thing between guys. It had to be…right? Will chuckled nervously to himself. 

Of course. What was so weird with thinking that a guy was cute. Was Austin cute then? Definitely. Jason? Cute as well. Nico? Just adorable.

Will’s hands flew to his mouth, mortified.  _ Oh shit. Oh no no no no no no no no. NO.  _ Will squeezed his eyes shut. God damn it he was so screwed. He vividly remembered this fluttery feeling in his stomach, like a thousand flowers blooming in his stomach simultaneously.

He recalled it from the time he was with Jason, and he knew what it was.

Will’s palms covered his entire face.

He liked Nico di Angelo.

…

Nico peeked into the room where Will slept. Nico felt a sharp intake of air fill his lungs. Solace was there, lying on the bed--no, his bed, and a few light snores were heard.

Nico tiptoed into the room, wincing when a little light shone on Will's face from the outside, causing the latter to grunt. Nico walked as softly as he could towards the "sleeping beauty" and stood over him.

His long hair fell over his eyes, loose from the makeshift bun he'd done up earlier. Nico heard a vague purr from the doorway, and Pollo ran up to Nico, nuzzling its nose against his calf.

Nico bent down and scooped up Pollo into his arms, then turned to gaze at Will's sleeping figure again. He inhaled deeply, then leaned forward slightly.

He looked to Pollo, then at Will's face, just inches from his now, and once again took another deep breath. 

Angling his head, Nico gently placed his lips on top of Will's forehead. A thrill ran up his spine and through his blood.

He hurriedly left the room after that. He didn't want to risk letting his heart take over his head and end up in him doing things he knew he'd regret later.

A sigh left Nico's chest as he closed the door, and turned to walk away.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys. I think y'all'd probably know by now that...my updates aren't as frequent. Well...how should i put it? I can assure you, that i still love PJO very much, and i love solangelo a lot as well. Of course, I don't think i'll be giving up this fanfiction, but well, if any of you want to adopt it, just private message me, or dm my instagram account orange_berry_ .
> 
> So then, why am i not updating as frequently? Well i have exams. Like a lot of them right now, and because of corona, the mid-year exams were cancelled. This just means that more topics are being tested for the upcoming exams and I don't think i can spend as much time on this fanfiction as much as i would love to. On top of that, next year i would have to take on 8-10 subjects, meaning i would reach home around 6pm every day, and with dinner and homework taking up around 3-4 hours, i truly do not think it is the best time to try to carry on with regular updates on this fanfiction.
> 
> This year, for me, is streaming year, which means it would decide what course i would take, and based on that course, the exams i would take for the next 2-4 years. Not even including university. And yes, because of the school I'm in, it is pretty much compulsory for me to take university. Hence, right now, i hope y'all understand that i have to set my priorities straight (not that this fanfiction isn't important at all).
> 
> Thing is, i am only 13 going 14, and i should really be focusing on my future now, else I'm sure i'd regret it in the future. As much as i love writing and making this kinda content for y'all, i do not want to neglect my responsibilities as a student. If you do head over to my instagram, and wonder why i still keep making art despite all of these circumstances, it's really because i feel fanfiction requires a really different level of time devoted to it, and it is kind of a commitment that right now, may be a bite a little more than i can chew.
> 
> Of course, i am very sorry for this. I should not have overestimated my abilities and well, things obviously took an unexpected turn. I hope y'all don't hate me for this, and i myself also feel very bad for having to write this, but i just have to do it. I don't want to leave y'all hanging, wondering when the next update will come, and I don't want to deceive myself into thinking that i am oh so capable.
> 
> That said, i will do my best to continue this. It is still somewhat up for adoption though. If no one adopts it, expect updates as and when it's possible for me to :D. I love you all so much 
> 
> Thank you


	9. Chapter 9

_ Nico should honestly just confess already and kiss the damn boy. I could really do with getting my food without having to hear him go on and on about what to say to Will. I'd really appreciate my food being served on time, but whatever. I'm just a cat. _

_ Pollo _

Will got up early the next morning, his hair a mess. He rolled over to switch off the alarm that had woken him up. Humans really should have designed some sort of alarm that could switch off automatically once he was awake. It would really save him a lot of time.

He sat up, cross-legged, fatigue lining his eyes. Waking up in Nico's room never really became less confusing to him. 

Still, it was easy to find his attire. Hanging on the door knob, there was a cream shirt and brown short pants. Will grinned; di Angelo appeared to know his taste in clothes.

Just as Will was changing into his new attire for the day, Nico burst into the room. 

"Shit! I forgot to wake-" Nico stopped mid-sentence, staring awkwardly at Will's half-dressed body. "Oops. Sorry. I-I'll leave now. Haha…" Nico laughed tensely and proceeded to slam the door shut. Will chuckled, remembering Nico's words about how it was "his home" and that there wasn't anything he'd not seen him in.

Still, nevertheless, his face flushed a dark red.  _ Oh my god, Will. Stop. Making. Yourself. Fall. Further. For. Him. _ Will sighed, both disappointed and somewhat happy about finding a new crush. Ever since Jason left, Will wasn't really able to move on and wasn't the most comfortable with the idea of finding someone new.

Perhaps it was because of his own thinking that if he moved on too quickly, it would seem like his love for Jason didn't run deep.

Despite that, Will was really excited to tell Kayla and Austin about it. Both of them had been there the entire time, since he told them about his crush on Jason, then the confession, through the breakup, and they were still by his side after all that. It was truly heartening to know he had friends to stick with him through thick and thin.

He packed up his belongings, ensuring he hadn't left anything lying around before leaving the room, gently shutting the door behind him as he exited. He found Nico sitting on the couch, watching him.

"Got everything already?" Will went over the words once in his head before saying it out loud.

"Yeah. School's starting in a bit now, so i should get going." He rummaged through his bag, and pulled out a little cash. "There. For my living expenses here. Thanks for hosting me."

Nico looked hesitant to accept the money, but either way, Will thrust it into his hand. "Honestly, just take it already."

Nico finally took it, albeit reluctantly, and Will couldn’t disguise a smile. Reyna’s eyes slid over sharply. “What’s so funny?”

Nico huffed. “Come on, Reyna. No need to be so cold.”

Reyna rolled her eyes. “You’re one to talk, aren’t you? Besides, i’m just worried for you.”

Nico raised his eyebrows. “He’s not a threat to me.” Nico’s lips curled into a grin. “Either way, if he does anything to me, i can just twist his arm and snap it in half.”

Will paled. “You’re kidding right?” Nico shrugged. 

“Maybe. You probably don’t want to try though, do you?” Will shook his head vigorously. 

Will took another glance at his watch. “Ah, i really need to go now. I’ll catch up with you sometime.”

Will pondered over something, thinking there was something he had forgotten to say. He narrowed his eyes, then it finally came to mind.

“Oh yeah by the way, i finally found a venue. I can give you some kind of first-class priority thing. You wanna come?”

Nico looked to Reyna, who didn’t say anything. Nico just gave a resigned sigh. “Yeah sure. When is it?”

Will tried to recall. “I think around a week from now. It’s really rushed honestly, and to make the deadline we’ll need to practice everyday after school, so I'm not sure I can meet up with you as often.”

Will sighed. “There were other dates of course, but I had checked all the others. They were either really expensive, too far away, the timing was beyond curfew, or it was at some sleazy place.”

Nico wrinkled his nose. “Ew. Thank the gods you chose the date and place you did, though...i don’t know where that is?”

“It’s near Hazel’s coffeeshop. I specially tried to look for a place I knew would be easy for you to go to.”

Will blushed, and he caught Reyna giving Nico a half-shove. Will’s watch began to beep.

“Oh shit. I am so gonna be late. Can’t stay any longer, sorry ‘bout that, but i gotta go! See you at the concert thing.”

Will stayed just long enough to see Nico’s wave, then he dashed off towards the school, not daring to look back.

…

[Fast forward to two days before the concert thing]

Will heard a knock on the studio door. He frowned. He didn’t have time to deal with some youngsters who had gotten their timing wrong for the booking of the studio. Kayla, Austin and Will had all paid for this time to be allocated to their band to be using it right now, and seeing that they were rushing to meet the deadline, wasting time like this was really a hassle, even for nice boy Will.

Will sighed, then walked over to open the door. 

“Hey sorry we’re still using the studio right now. I think you must have gotten your timing wrong…”

The guest smiled back at him.

“Nico? What’re you doing here?”

The shorter boy shrugged. “I was curious about how the song would sound like, and what song you were going to sing.”

Austin frowned at the door, unable to see who was intruding during their practice time.

“Will? Who is it? Is it Joseph and his band again who’d gotten their timing wrong?”

“Nope! It’s Nico.” Will stepped to the side to let the other two see who it was, as though they already couldn’t tell despite Will explicitly saying so.

“Ah well...sorry man, we can’t really afford to spend time being really hospitable, but i guess you can just sit there if you wanna and watch us play,” Austin said, somewhat apologetically.

Nico shrugged, not really minding the prospect of it.

Kayla and Austin exchanged looks, then looked back and forth towards Will. Will had told them about his crush on Nico, and they had decided to play matchmaker. Or well, just not get in the way of those two.

“So...you’re singing, i suppose?” Nico asked awkwardly amidst the silence, gesturing towards Will.

Will beamed. “Yeah. But it’s a duet, so i’m gonna sing it with Austin.”

Austin shifted uncomfortably at the mention of his own name. “If i mess up, it’s all gonna be your fault.”

Will waved his hand vaguely, not really listening. “Yeah yeah. It’s no big deal.”

Austin raised his eyebrows, but then soon after returned to practising.

“We’re planning to sing just one new song, mostly because well, we’re really out of practice and i think it’d be best to play stuff we’re more familiar with. And the new song is well…” Will touched the back of his neck, which he could already feel begin to grow hot. 

“Well..?” Nico prompted. Austin and Kayla looked on anxiously, like they were trying to send him a sort of brain message not to mess up.

“I-it’s for you. The new song we’re singing is for you.” Nico’s eyes widened a fraction. He pointed stiffly at himself.

“For me?”

“Yeah. For you.” Will said miserably. The way he’d said it just sounded so dumb as compared to how suave he sounded when he practised saying that in his head.

Nico gave a shy smile. “Thanks...but what is it?”

“Written in the stars,” Will blurted out. “It’s a love song, and i don’t know, i just really liked it, and i hope you do too.”

He looked to his bandmates for help, but Austin was just in a corner hiding from second-hand embarrassment. Kayla, despite the amusing situation, stepped up to prevent the atmosphere from getting even more awkward.

“You wanna hear it? Since it’s for you anyway, and I guess you have the right to hear it…” Kayla trailed off. “Unless you’d rather it be a surprise?”

Nico shook his head. “Nah. Even if you don’t play it now, i’ll still check it up at home, so it wouldn’t really be a surprise either way.”

Kayla just nodded wordlessly, and turned to Austin and Will, who nodded back, both with nervousness and anticipation.

Kayla began to play the drums, and Will’s voice soon filled the air.

…

A/N: Soooo hi yes, i’m back wow. To be honest, this is just a week prior to the exam, so i’m kinda stressed but yeah. I just felt that I have been really irresponsible with the pace at which I upload chapters. 

A few things to note, yes, I am aware that Kayla’s personality is pretty damn OOC, but ok, idk how to properly write her character. Indeed, that is no excuse but still, i’ll just probably change it when i’m more free (which if i were to be honest, i don’t think is soon, because during the year-end holidays i’m planning to look for a job and next year’s studies are gonna be even more stressful than this year’s)

And...there isn’t anything much else other than that.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Comment any pointers or suggestions you would like in the future chapters! I accept plot ideas too (I may use it unless I have already an idea in mind :D). Also, if it's just criticism, I take that too. Thank you all so much.


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